


mauls redemption

by Grovylethethieflover



Series: star wars [1]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2019-05-01 16:23:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 43,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14524527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grovylethethieflover/pseuds/Grovylethethieflover
Summary: i'll try kenobi, i'll try... with those words the former sith lord known as darth maul engages into a whole new adventure, namely learning what it is like to life a life in a loving family, will maul be able to accept this life? ore will the sith ways always stay part of him? (sorry i'm not very good at writing summaries for my stories) DISCLAIMER I DON'T OWN ANYTHING!





	1. chapter 1: words strike harder then deeds

**Author's Note:**

  * For [theres-no-comma (littleboxes)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/littleboxes/gifts).



Chapter 1: Words Strike Harder Than Deeds  
by femkeschattig  
Edited by: MissNemesisFace

Chapter 1: Words Strike Harder Than Deeds

"You can kill me, but you will never destroy me…it takes strength to resist the Dark Side" Obi-wan Kenobi says as he looks at Maul calmly. "Only the weak embrace it…" Kenobi says as he struggles for a moment to reach Maul.

"It is more powerful than you know…" Maul says as he faces Obi-wan for a moment, then turns his back on him again.

"And those who oppose it are stronger then you will ever be!" Obi-wan retorts, before his face softens into a look of kindness and compassion. "I know were you are from, I have been to your village…I know the decision to join the Dark Side wasn't your choice," Obi-wan says as he looks at Maul with a sad look on his face. "The Nightsisters made that choice for you--" Obi-wan begins before he is cut off, as Maul turns around with fury burning in his eyes as he exclaimed:

"SILENCE! You think you know me?" he snaps, growling.

"I know more than you think I do… the Nightsisters told me how you were forced on the path of the Dark Side. They told me how you have been tortured, starved, and abused for years only to be thrown aside at the end of it all. Yet, do you really still believe in the ways of the Sith?" Obi-wan questions with a sorrowful look on his face.

"Yes!" Maul barks at Kenobi as he tightens his grip on the neck of Duchess Satine for a moment, making the woman gasp for air even more. 

"Yet sidious betrayed you--threw you aside like you meant nothing to him." Kenobi spits as he looks at Maul, indignantly. "Think Maul; you’re a smart guy, and you have free-choice now. Think about what you could have if you would stop now. Join the Jedi…become powerful: but for the cause of others." Obi-wan says calmly as he smiles at Satine, who returns his smile. Maul has seemed to loosen his Force-grib on her neck as he thinks about this for a moment.

"Listen, Maul… I know you have always felt unappreciated and unwanted under Sidious; that you couldn't feel any emotion unless they were part of what the Sith believed in. Mother Talzin showed me all the mental and physical abuse you have been through." Obi-wan says as he takes a step towards Maul, careful not to accidentally anger the Zabrak: knowing that would mean Satine's end.

"Know that this isn't how living, breathing beings should be treated, and if we had known--sensed you--we would had come to save you earlier on." Obi-wan went on as he is now very close to the Zabrak. He manages to place a hand on his. "I am offering you a second chance to live and to feel all of the feelings that have been denied to you previously: love, friendship, kindness." Obi-wan says as he looks Maul directly in the eyes now, honesty filling his gesture as he held out his hand towards the young Zabrak who looks at it like it was made of pure poison.

=Maul's POV=

"Know that this isn't how living, breathing beings should be treated, and if we had known--sensed you--we would had come to save you earlier on." Obi-wan continues his mindless rambling as he manages to very carefully get so close to me that he manages to place a hand on my arm. I look down at his hand with shock, not having felt someone touch me without it being to punish me before. "Know that this isn't how living, breathing beings should be treated, and if we had known--sensed you--we would had come to save you earlier on." Obi-wan says as he holds out his hand towards me. Jedi filth.  
"You really think sympathizing with me will help you save your beloved Duchess?" I sneer at the Jedi. Wait...not, this can't be right. I feel a twitch of emotion in my chest. No. It's just a Jedi trick. Ignore it, Maul. Still, at the very mention of a second chance…being allowed to feel certain emotions and speak openly about them without being punished for it...no! Love is for the weak, caring is for fools. Argh! Think about your training, Maul! Think about your training.

"Well, it was worth a try. I meant what I said, Maul." Kenobi directs his attention to the pathetic Duchess. "Satine, I know he is threatening you right now, but know that he has been manipulated into becoming a Sith since he was young. Perhaps we could give him a chance. Allow him to live here, on Mandalore, with us." He looks back at me, "We could help you--teach you the ways of the Jedi…" Obi-wan says as he gently gives my arms small squeezes as he keeps his eyes trained on me.

"Never! I will never give up my quest for revenge!" I growl at Obi-wan, who looks at me sadly, before he does something I had never expected him to do: He pulls me into a warm embrace, stroking my back gently.

"You will find peace if you let your emotion show from time-to-time--let it out." Obi-wan says softly as he rubs my back more, making soft hushing sounds as he did so. This is my chance to stab him in the back--to get my revenge! Yet, for some odd reason, the hushing sounds and the rubbing over my back leaves me with a paralyzed with a feeling in my chest I don't recognize, as well as a strange sting behind my eyes as I heard a soft "thud" behind me. Wait, it can't be...I've let go of Satine. Kenobi's getting in my head, but it's getting harder and harder for me to resist this odd new feeling...is this comfort?

"You okay, Satine? Are you hurt?" I hear Kenobi ask as I feel his strong, tender arms keeping me in a state of willing paralysis.

"Yeah, just a bit faint…what did you do?" I hear the Duchess ask. From the rustle of clothes and the plodding of her feet, she seems to have gotten up, and is now approaching us.

"He was hurt by sidious, Satine. He has never known proper care, nor does he understand love." Obi-wan's voice replied as I heard my brother groan. He was most likely apprehended by the Mandalorians supporting the Duchess.

"So now what? Do we put them back in jail?" Satine's voice asks as I feel Kenobi keep up his act of kindness and holds me close. He even goes so as far to take me in his lap! What is his game?

"No. I think he might need help, both physically and mentally." Kenobi replies.

"Obi-wan, no! He'll attack me again--and this time, he won't hesitate: he will kill me." Dutchess Satine replies, taken aback at Kenobi's hubris as she looks at her beloved.

"Satine, look at him. Sidious used him like a puppet and threw him aside like a rag-doll when he had no use for him anymore. He left him as a shell of a being, with only hatred, anger, and lust for revenge filling him. He needs guidance--guidance I can give him. If he had a safe place to stay--a place he could start to call his home and people who could be his new family, he could start to recover. Please, Satine..." Obi-wan pleads as he suddenly lifts me on his arm, holding me so that I can't get my lightsaber, before he carries me.

"I know, my dear Obi-wan, but he's so dangerous. I just don't want you to get hurt…" Satine says calmly, trying to mask the concern filling her voice.

"You should listen to the woman. I do not intend to change my ways." I growl as I struggle in Obi-wan's grip. The indignity--he holds me as if I am an infant! He will regret this when he releases me; I will make sure of it.

"Maybe I am making a mistake, but I should at least try. You deserve that. I know that Sidious beat you. I know he used his unrelenting cruelty to force you to feel only rage--telling you that it will feed your power. Listen to me, Maul. I know if you would focus you would find the pain burning inside you, still. I know you keep your fear buried deep inside of you." Obi-wan says as he takes me to a guest room and sits me on the side of the bed; Satine sitting down next to him as he speaks.

"You're sure, Obi-wan?" Satine askes as she eyes her lover with uncertainty.

"Yes, Satine, no one can toss aside all his or her feelings. No one can." Obi-wan says as he smiles at her, lightly touching her hand. He takes her hand in his own before he makes her fingers gently touch mine.

"Please go and see if someone could make a bathroom ready so he can wash up--get him some proper clothes." Obi-wan says. With this mark of disrespect he has crossed a line; I am not a child who needs a bath and clean clothes. I was a Dark Lord of the Sith! I'm not going to let them treat me like a mere child. I have to get away--I have to get free of Obi-wan's grasp!

"Calm down, Maul! I just want you to clean yourself up a little," he chuckles. The nerve... "You stink even worse than Jabba the Hutt and your clothes are tattered rags. I figure you might want to have some new clothes." Obi-wan says calmly as he holds me down. Let me up, Jedi filth! I struggle, trying to throw him off of me.

"If you think you're going to get me down like this, you're wrong! You will never break me! NEVER!" I scream as I use my full power to try and break free. Ugh! Useless! Despite my best efforts, Kenobi held me down still. Wait, what's this pressure in my neck?! Why is everything growing black?!

Obi-wan's POV

"What did you do?" Dutchess Satine asks me as she sits down next to me and looks from me to Maul, who was still resting in my arms, with a look of pure disgust plastered on her face.

"I knocked him unconscious for the time being, We will need to restrain him for now, but I want to see if I can bring him to the Light Side." I aide a medical droid at it quickly brings a durasteel straight-jacket--he won't be able to free himself from this. I carefully put it on the young Zabrak, who I then gently place down on the bed and tucked him in.

"How? He is much too dangerous. You have seen first hand what he is capable of." Satine says to me as she looks at me worriedly.

"I know, Satine, but I have learned that every being has good inside them, and I can feel that there is still good inside of Maul. Somewhere, buried deep under that thick layer of rage and hatred, is that helpless little boy Mother Talzin lost so long ago. I want to try to see if I can bring him out." I say as I look at Maul's face while stroking my beard as I ponder this matter further.

"I"ll do what I can, but I won't promise I will be motherly to him," Satine says, at which I nod, totally understanding that she doesn't fully trust Maul. I don't blame her, considering what she had just been through, but I need her help in order to give Maul a loving home so that he may consider staying.

"I"ll see if I can get someone to prepare him a bath and get some decent clothes he can wear." Satine relents before she giving me a kiss on my check and leaving the room--leaving me alone with Maul for a moment. With this chance, I take off his lightsabers and put them in my own belt so that I could get rid of them later. I then make the young Zabrak lie in a much more comfortable position.

"I have to admit, if he isn't trying to kill me, he looks more like a injured child than a Sith Lord..." This thought intrudes upon me as I made sure he's comfortable. I find myself so caught up staring at the sleeping figure that I let out a small yelp when a hand is placed on my shoulder.

"Calm down, it's just me. Everything is set." Satine says calmly as she holds my shoulder and looks at Maul as well, her eyes full of worry. Do i know if it was more for my well being than for his

"I"ll see to it that he be cleaned. Don't worry, Satine, he will learn. You'll see." I assured the Dutchess with a smile.

"I hope so, Kenobi--for both of us..." Satine says as she looks at Maul with concern in her eyes as I gently scoop him up and carry him to the bathroom. Gently, I bathe him and dry him before I dress him in his new clothes, not forgetting to put the restraint back on him.

"So, that must feel a lot better, to be rid of al that filth and in nice, new clothes." I think as I put Maul back in the bed and tuck him in again. Just as I do so, Maul opened his yellow eyes, looking at me fiercely as he growls:

"You what did you do to me!?" The young Zabrak asks me as he looks at me fiercely, struggling to get out of the straight-jacket.

"You have been washed up and put in some new clothes, as well as a straight-jacket that won't be taken off until you learn to behave yourself." I say strictly as I place him down again and tuck him in.

"You...you think you may have won, Jedi, but I will not break! Never!" Maul spits at me.

"You don't have to. All I want is that you listen to me for once in your life. That is, unless you want to be cut in half again." I joke as I put a hand on his back.

"Your entire life you have faced pain, hunger, sadness, and anger. I know Sidious never cared for you, but I want to and Satine will warm up to you, eventually. I know her." I say as I keep stroking his back. "You can find a warm home and a loving family here if you were willing to let go of your anger and hunger for revenge." I say as I give Maul a calm look, as Satine smiled at me from the doorway.

"Why...why would you do that? I killed your master. Almost took your beloved and yet...yet you're willing to help me." Maul says as he looks at me with a surprised look.

"Yeah, and I cut you in half and let you rot on Lotho Minior all those years. Let's say we're even, now, and stop this foolishness. Always remember, from revenge comes more pain and suffering. " I say as I nod to Satine, who hesitantly comes a little closer towards us and places a hand on my shoulder.

"Satine... I know you're not very fond of Maul, but he deserves a second chance as match as anyone else in the galaxy. " I smile at Satine as she sits down next to me on the side of the bed--relatively close to Maul--and places a hand on my face.

"I'll try, my dear Obi-wan, yet what are we going to do about the Council?" Satine asks as she looks from me to Maul, who glares at us silently as Satine strokes his face.

"Well, I can't be with you if I stay in the Council, now can I?" I smile as I look at Satine, who smiles at me as she hugs me.

"I'll resign today. Then I have no reason to inform them that Maul is still alive. He will be safe here on Mandalore with us." I smile as I bend in and kiss her.

"You see, words strike harder than deeds from time to time." I smirk before we kiss again, much to the annoyance of Maul--but he would get used to it, eventually.

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And with that i end the first chapter! I hope you all liked it and that i did the characters right. I have watched a few episodes of star wars the clone wars, including this episode and i have fully watched rebels, so i hope the characters are what they were in the series...

Review!


	2. chapter 2: a second chance

Chapter 2: A Second Chance  
Edited by: MissNemesisFace  
by femkeschattig

Chapter 2: A Second Chance

Maul's POV

After Satine and that blasted Obi-Wan finally stop kissing, Obi-Wan draws out his holocommunicator. Without wasting any time, he calls the council to tell them he's resigning because he has found love in Duchess Satine and plans to marry her. How pathetic and weak Kenobi truly is--he can't even keep to the pointless rules of his own order! Ha! Even as I lie here, I can hear the outcry of the displeased "Jedi Council" as they hear the news of their beloved hero turning his back on them and their order for a female. As much as I hate to admit it, though, Kenobi is quite resolute in his decision and refuses to back down as he cuts off his feed.

Pathetic Jedi. If that had been my master, I would had been dead for sure. I know this first-hand...sometimes, my thoughts still drift to my sweet Kilindi from time to time. But a Sith loves no one; my Master was right to make me kill her--she made me weak. Obi-Wan sits down with me again and puts the holocom in front of me.

"Your turn." he smiles as he turns it on once more. I can't keep myself from glaring at him as I sit up.

"Are you insane or just stupid, Jedi? If he finds out that I am alive, then he will kill me for certain. When you cut me in half, you made me a liability to him. Now that I am back, I am a threat. He will not let me live!" I shouted angrily at Obi-Wan who looked at Satine sadly before they both looked at me.

"Was he always like that to you?" Obi-Wan asks, sounding rather shocked for some reason. I still have no idea why he's so worried about me. I killed his Master as he stood, helpless, and watched. How can he forgive me and care about me so much? How are the Jedi even still alive if they teach this sort of non-sense--this lack of self-preservation.

"Yes, ever since he took me. What of it?" I growl. Again, the two lovers exchange worried glances, and before I knew what was going on I was being hugged by both of them. How degrading. I will kill them both for this. This will not go unforgotten.

"Maul, that's abuse. It's no wonder you are so angry all the time; you’ve never had a good example, it seems..." Obi-Wan says as both of them look at me with pitiful expressions. I don't need their pity. I don't need anyone's pity.

"Yeah, so what?" I ask with rage smoldering in my voice, still not liking the fact that these two are being so nice to me.  
"Did Sidious ever tell you that he cared for you or, at the very least, appreciated you as a Sith Assassin?" Obi-Wan asks as he puts away the holocom. What a moronic question! How could Kenobi even think to ask me something like that? Does he know nothing of the Sith? Is he really that ignorant? That dense?

"No, but he showed me by giving me things like my lightsaber parts and hover-bikes." I say, smugly, as I recall the smirk on my Master's face when I had gotten my hover-bike. I often enhanced it with parts I got from my assassination jobs to make it faster, lighter, more silent and--of course--filled to the brim with weapons.

"Did it never occur to you that those gadgets were merely tools to hone you into a better killing machine, and to buy your loyalty?" Obi-Wan asks as he looks at me sadly. I feel my face burn as I look down. I'd never thought of it that way. I had always thought that it had been Master’s way of showing affection to me, in his own twisted way.

"I see. Well, I think it was his way of keeping you content and loyal and doing what he promised. I think he never planned on making you the next Sith Lord," Obi-Wan says as he strokes his blasted beard and questions my words. Argh! I wish I had a weapon and that my arms free so that I could cut slice that disgusting patch of hair from his smug face for saying something like that! Of course Master cared for me. Of course he would make me the next Sith Lord! What Kenobi is saying is all lies! Don't fall for it! You're better than this!

"Ask yourself this: why didn't he ever accompany you on your missions? Why didn't he ever praise you for being the best assassin--and possibly the best warrior--in the galaxy, if even once? In fact, Maul, how were you rewarded for your work? If you took too long, did he send anyone to find you? Did he send anyone to find you after our fight on Naboo?" A tiny voice in my head pounds at me, drives into my skull. It's so clear...he...he tried to drown me. He left me to starve and freeze to death on that ice-world--not even granting me the dignity of clothing. All of this after he stripped me, bound me, and covered my entire body in these tattoos. Slowly. Over the course of several days, all the while telling me that the agony and suffering I was being forced to experience would make me stronger...did it really, or did he just want to hurt me?

"So how about giving this life a chance? See what it brings you." Obi-Wan says as he places a hand under my chin and forced me to look him in the eye, just like Palpatine had done all those years ago. Only, this time, there is no cruelty in the eyes meeting mine. No. No, this is all a trick. It has to be. I know how treacherous the Jedi are.

"Then what? Become your pet? No thanks." I snap as I look away, pulling my head free of Kenobi's hand.

"Not a pet. A member of the family; of my family." Obi-Wan says. Family? The only family I've ever had was Savage, and I only recently met him. I never needed family--all I've ever wanted was power, but now that Kenobi has told me everything that Sidious has ever promised me was a lie, it doesn't sound too bad. I fight tears. Someone to care about me. Genuinely care about me...any time I showed any emotion outside of anger or hate, I was punished: pelted with rocks, threatened to be burned with acid, beaten with wooden sticks, back-handed. I was...I was just a child.

"Well? How about giving it two weeks? If you don't like it, we'll set you free to carry out your onslaught. If you like it, you’re more than welcome to join our family." Kenobi says, smiling brightly, as he and Satine share a nod, then pull me close. I nearly flinch.

"Okay then, Kenobi. I’ll give your asinine proposition a chance." I say, trying to keep up my facade, as I close my eyes and let them hug me, feeling a strange warmth flow over my cheek as I do so. Warmth. Kindness. 

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As the week passes, I try to keep myself occupied while Kenobi and Satine take care of me. At first, I must admit, I was annoyed at almost everything they did. I am a grown man! I killed a Yuuzhan Vong while blinded, for crying out loud! I can look after myself!   
I sigh, resigning myself to my fate. I chose to do this. I accepted this. Plus, I'm still tied down in this blasted thing, so doing normal things like getting up and walking around were out of the question, let alone going to relieve myself! Yet, the strangest thing was the way they took care of me. Palpatine had always humiliated and beaten me from the day I had come with him. Kenobi is yet to hit me or tried to offend me. He's just…here. Speaking with me as he takes care of me. His Duchess stays away from me as much as possible, most likely due to the fact that I almost killed her. Over time, she seems to come in and watch Kenobi as he takes care of me. Slowly, she comes closer and closer to me each day. It's been a full week, now, and she's finally comfortable enough to sit at my bed.  
Not that I care. I could care less about either one of them. I steal a few glares at Kenobi as he turns the pages of the book in my lap as I read. The book's not much; just some silly tales parents normally read to their children, yet none of them are familiar to me, since Palpatine never let me near any of that stuff. The only one I can ever recall is that old rhyme that took me so long to understand: "Far above, far above, we don't know where we'll fall. Far above, far above, what once was big is now made small." I am now made small...

This story is nothing but a bunch of tripe. These stories all make the Jedi sound like they're the heroes of the galaxy. Nonsense. They're nothing but mindless puppets dancing on the strings of a decaying Republic. I shake my head and roll my eyes at the end of the last novel in which a Jedi had saved a princess from some ancient monster that threatened her, before they got married and lived happily ever after in their big castle. It doesn't even hold up to their teachings. They stray from things like marriage, castles, wealth, power. Fools.

Argh! These stories give me a headache! Don’t they have anything that ends with blood and whole planets getting destroyed? I let my eyes scan the spines of the books for one I haven't read yet. That's when my eye fell on a smaller red book that stood in a corner and had a title I hadn't read before, though it looks promising.  
"What's the one in the corner? The one with the red cover?" I ask as I nod towards it. I saw Obi-Wan smile and take it from the shelf, dusting it off before he puts it in my lap.

"It is a very old one, Maul. I thought you might like it. It does have Sith in it." Obi-Wan smiles as he opens the book to the first page, "and lots of blood…" Satine adds with a smile on her face as she puts her hand on mine and looks at me.

"That's a lot of progress if you ask me. Those children's tales are starting to bore me, anyway." I state, curtly, as I start to read the first lines of the story, cursing inwardly when I saw it started with "once upon time in a galaxy far, far away" like it did in all stories…

"...There was a creature, a Sith, who was so twisted by the Dark Side that he was unable to feel any emotions or any pain. " I started reading, smirking at the idea of being incapable of feeling any emotions or pain. "He lived in a big, fancy castle on the planet Mustafar, which was a blooming planet back then and was back then known as Sithinious and was rich in ore, thanks to the many sleeping volcanoes on the planet." I read, rolling my eyes of idea of Mustafar being a planet that once had flowers and plants everywhere. Poppycock.

This is going to be just another fairy tale, it seems. Oh well, as long as it contains the promised amount off blood…" I sigh as I read on.

One fateful night, a beautiful beggar-girl knocked on the door of his castle. The man wanted to refuse her at first, but seeing the shaking girl twisted something inside him. He allowed her to stay. At first he didn't want to have anything to do with the friendly girl, who just roamed around the palace and played with the many animals that lived on the planet, but over time he started to look at her whenever he had time to spare and he as he did he found himself feeling more and more odd.

He remembered that his own parents had been murdered before his eyes when he was around the two years old and the shadow that had always took care of him afterwards; telling him love was a lie and that only murdering was the way to get what he wanted, yet when he looked her in the eye, he felt something he had never felt before: love.

Each and every day he showed the girl, Farra, that he cared deeply for her, and Farra slowly started to warm up to the Sith Lord Musta.

Not match later, Musta and Farra got married and after this event, Farra slowly opened the Sith Lord's long-closed heart. Natural bliss was not to be had so easily, though, for something tragic happened. A huge war came across the galaxy and many men, women, and children were slaughtered, including the sith lord's beloved wife and their newborn son. Filled with anger, the man went to the capital city of the Republic and murdered everyone inside in cold blood, for he believed they were the ones that had taken his wife and son from him.

Ah, now that's more like it! Any more of this flowery, lovey nonsense and I may just vomit. I smirk as I place my head down a little and read on:  
When everyone in the council was slaughtered another, another sith lord came and told him he had kept a close eye on him from the day he was born. He told him that this was a test to see if he had what it take to let all his anger guide him and become a weapon off mass destruction.

"You did. Despite that woman's fake love, you managed to become a killing machine. Now you’re a true sith." the Master said as he handed the man a glowing, red Lightsaber "From now on you will be known as Darth Mustafaro," the Master said, before the two of them went to plan their next murder.

Darth Mustafaro. I've never heard of him. Lord Sidious made sure I knew every Darth there was when he trained me. Likely Jedi propaganda, I think as I look at the last text of the page with a raised brow-line.

"Over time, the two of them caused a giant war to end and another one to start; a war they wouldn't win: a war against the Jedi--the protectors off all that was good in the galaxy. The Sith led the Jedi to Mustafar, which was back then known as Sithinos, erupting all the volcanoes on the planet as to try and defeat all the Jedi on the planet, but just as his Master-plan had been put to motion, the ghost of his wife appeared…

"Musta...Musta stop! This is not the right way! This is not who you are on the inside…" The ghost of his wife pleaded as she floated to her former husband. She looked at him with sorrowful eyes.

"Get away! You never loved me! It was all a trick! A test to get me to embrace the Dark Side…" Musta exclaimed as he looked at the ghost of his past wife with burning rage.

"No, Musta. The Sith Lord said that only to make you close your heart once and for all; to make the pain of loss go away. I've always loved you…always…." Farra said as she placed a ghostly hand on her husband's hand.

He truly is a fool if he believes her...I look up from the page to Obi-wan, who seems to be just as intrigued by the story as I am right now. I can barely suppress a chuckle. And here I thought he hated the Dark Side. I focus on the story again after Obi-wan finally turns the page.

Musta looked at her with widened eyes, then at the red lightsaber in his hand, thinking about how foolish he had been. Quickly, he went out and right before all the volcanoes erupted he managed to get all Jedi in his ship and to safety. However, he was unable to escape and was burned under the lava that would from that day on cover the entire planet. The Jedi couldn't honor the name of a Sith who had done only one good thing before he died, but they did write down the story of Musta and Farra. From that day forward, the volcano planet would forever be named Mustafar after the two lovers. The story ended with a picture of Mustafar with a strange sign on it: of them them was the snake of the Sith, the other was the face of a female who was wrapped into the snake forming a stylized heart.  
"Wow, that was kind of creepy…" Satine says as she looked at Obi-wan with a shocked look, clearly having read the story as well.

"Yeah, and who had thought that was where the name Mustafar came from, as well. I always thought it had another reason." Obi-wan jokingly said as he tucks me in for the night like he always did. I swear, if he does this one more time...

"Obi…" Satine says, teasingly, as she gave her now fiancé a playful push. Obi-wan smirked as he acted like that knocked him off balance and made that he fell sideways over me, tickling me as he did so. I try to kick Kenobi away from me, not really liking it when he's treating me like a child. Yet these kind of moments gave me a strange feeling in my chest, a feeling I don't quite understand.

Perhaps this is what Musta felt as well when he first met Farra… I snap myself back to reality as I try to think of a way to free myself from this infernal straight jacket. This cannot go unpunished. I use my metal toes instead, tickling him back. This will have to do...

"Watch out Satine, he fights mean!" Obi-wan teases as he gently turns me on my side, and before I knew what was happening I was able to move my arms and tickle Kenobi with my arms, making the human laugh as he tickles the life out of me as well.

"I won't give up yet…" I smirk as I managed to get on top of him. Holding a laughing Satine over my shoulder, who is firmly resisting--she didn't try to hurt me as she had last time, when Savage had her over his shoulder.

"Yep, I give up. You’re a good tickle-torturer you know." Obi-wan smirks as he takes over a smiling Satine and puts her down in his lap as I rub my wrists. This is the first time in a week that I've been able to move my arms again.

"I will let you off for now--if you promise you don't try to escape." Obi-wan says as he places me on my side and tucks me in.

"I won't...I won't… but not because I like it here. Never forget that. I stay because I know you will try to hug me again if I don't. Once was more than enough." I say as he makes sure i was warm enough, then gently strokes me over my head, careful to not prick himself on my horns.

"I know, Maul...deep down you care. It's still hard for you to accept it, though." Kenobi smiles as he gets up. Satine smiles and strokes me over my head as well, hesitating a moment before she suddenly gives me a soft kiss on my cheek.

"Good night, Maul. Pleasant dreams." She whispers as she hugs Kenobi, who smiles as he does the same now. Disgusting. My first reaction is to rub it off, but as I move my hand to do so I feel unable do it. Something in my chest feels...heavy...faint. What is this? I don't like this; yet I do. What is happening to me?

"Sleep! Tomorrow, we continue your training!" I can somehow hear Sidious's voice echoing in my head. No softness in his voice, no sign of either love nor care. Kenobi and Satine are the first people to ever show me this kind of affection, and it tears me up inside. Not because i hated it--no, I have long learned to embrace my hatred--but because it feels nice.

Just like Musta, I am turning around, it seems. I feel so pathetic. I find myself looking at Kenobi and Satine standing in the doorway. They look at me with smiles on their faces as I let myself drift off to sleep.

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That marks the end of the chapter! I hope you all liked it!

A/N

Maul is a very stubborn character for as far as i know, so i have tried to make him slowly start to doubt himself! I hope i did it right.

I made up the story of musta and farra myself, so nothing of the story i have written is cannon, i just hope you enjoyed it!

Ofcourse satine a bit nervous around maul at first, because of the death treath maul had put her under... but i think she would get used to him in time and with the help of obi wan she would get over it...

Well that is all for now! I hope it was your liking

Please leave a review!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That marks the end of the chapter! I hope you all liked it!
> 
> A/N
> 
> Maul is a very stubborn character for as far as i know, so i have tried to make him slowly start to doubt himself! I hope i did it right. 
> 
> I made up the story of musta and farra myself, so nothing of the story i have written is cannon, i just hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> Ofcourse satine a bit nervous around maul at first, because of the death treath maul had put her under... but i think she would get used to him in time and with the help of obi wan she would get over it... 
> 
> Well that is all for now! I hope it was your liking
> 
> Please leave a review!


	3. chapter 3: familie troubles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which maul falls ill and savage gets introduced to a normal family life for the first time

Chapter 3: Family Troubles  
Edited by: MissNemesisFace  
By: Femkeschattig

"Morning, Maul," Obi-wan smiles the next day as he goes into the room of the young Zabrak, who was still fast asleep and still seemed to be quite tired yet.

"Uuurg, Kenobi! Let me sleep! It's Six in the bloody morning! Let me sleep..." Maul groans as he pulls the blankets over himself again. Even as a Sith Assassin, he had never liked getting up before seven--though he always had to and would do so without complaint. He knew what complaining to Lord Sidious would get him--and now that was all behind him, he would like to sleep in; until Eight, at the very least.

"Come on, Maul. I thought you would like to go see Mandalore with us today. I guess I was mistaken." Obi-wan says with a casual smirk as he sits down next to Maul on his bed. Maul looks up and groans. He musters his best glare and says:

"Why does that have to happen now? Can't you wait until eight at the very least?" Maul snaps; he doesn't understand why he has to get up right now to go see Mandalore.

"We want to do some shopping with you, and that works best when its still quiet in town." Obi-wan say as he stumbles into the bathroom that was located inside the bedroom. He knows why Kenobi went in there. Maul gets out of bed and hides; not because he's a coward--no, he just dislikes taking baths. It reminded him of the time he nearly drown in an icy lake as a teenager.

Maul's POV

"Maul? Maul? Now, where did he get off to...?" that fool, Obi-wan asks as he looks around my bedroom. I can't let him find me. It would be far too...degrading to let him bathe me again. I hold my breath and stay as silent as possible. I can't let him find me. I still hate that, even after being here for a week and a half now. I will never enjoy "bath time". It reminds me too much of the time I nearly drown in the icy lake on Mykido.

"Maul! Come out! Come out! Wherever you are..." Obi-wan calls for me in a sing-song voice as if I were a child playing a simple game of hide-and-seek. 

"What's wrong, Obi?" Satine asks her lover as she comes in.

"Maul is playing hide and seek... i doubt he likes taking baths" obi wan smiled as he skimmed the ground.

"Are you sure he didn't just leave the room?" I hear Duchess Satine ask, sounding rather worried.

"Yes, Satine. I would have heard the door if he had left the room and I can still sense his presence in this room." Obi-wan replies as he keeps looking around; searching both high and low for me. The fool shall never find me!

"Okay then, I'll you help look for him." Satine says as she pulls back the blankets on my bed. She sighs when she fails to find me there. Are all humans this dense? Did she really think I would be hiding under the blankets? I was a Sith Assassin. As she reaches down to grab the pillow that had fallen from my bed, she spots me. Uh! Idiot! Why didn't I pick a better place to hide than this? I'm smarter than this.

"Found him! He's under the bed." Satine smiles as she tells Kenobi, who now manages to grab me before I could get away. Curse them both!

"Easy, easy, no one is going to cut you in half again…"Obi-wan jokes. I swear, if he makes that joke one more time, I'm going to cut him in half; see how much he likes it. He pulls me into his arms, pinning me in the same position as yesterday. 

"He seems…scared. It is as if water really frightens him." Satine observes as she places a hand on my back and rubs gently over my back. She's trying to comfort me...No! I don't want their pity. They can keep it.

"Yeah. I'll bet it has something to do with something Sidious did to him…" Obi-wan says as he carries me somewhere. I struggle again; I have a pretty good notion as to were he's taking me.

"I don't have to bet with you about that one, my dear Kenobi. I just hope that we can actually turn him around as you said." Satine says as Obi-wan sits me down, still holding me close.

"I'm still convinced that we can change him--that we can help him. He just need time and guidance in order to open up towards up about his suppressed emotions." Obi-wan's says as he slips past with me still in his arms--to where, I can't see. Why do he and Satine keep talking like I'm not here? I can hear you both, you know.

"I sure hope that you know what you're doing, dear. I would hate to see you get hurt because of the decision you've made…because you're too trusting of someone like…him." Satine says, flatly, as she gives me a stern look, making me glare at her hatefully. How dare she say something like that! If I had my lightsaber…

"I know what I'm doing. This is the right thing, and that he will turn around--trust me. We have already seen his lighter side during that tickle fight yesterday." Obi-wan says as he takes off the pajamas in which I had been dressed the night prior. How dare they do something like that! "He just doesn't recognize these feelings yet. When he does, he will understand that are just trying to help him." Obi-wan says calmly as he proceeds to help me out of my clothes, before he holds me close as my surroundings suddenly became strangely...hot...and...no...wet. How!? How did he sneak me into a bath without me realizing it?! I don't like this.

"See, was that so bad?" Obi-wan asks me as I immediately try to get up. My memory flashes back to the icy lake on Mykiddo. Why? This water was nice and hot instead of cold...

"For someone who claims to not be afraid of water, you sure are trembling a lot…" Obi-wan states as he manages to pull me back into the water, while keeping me close, making soft hushing noises once again to try and calm me.

"I am not afraid," I spit "Just get me out of this blasted stuff!" I growl, as I try to get up over and over again. Obi-wan holds me down and close to him as he strokes my back. My hearts race but slowly my body relaxes for some reason. No, I don't wanted to calm down! I wanted to get out--now.

"Maul, you're shaking and I know it isn't from the cold. I checked the water temperature before I put you in, myself. What's wrong?" Really!? What's wrong!? What's wrong!? He has the audacity to ask me that!? He eyes me worriedly, shocking me. My Master had never shown me any mercy or sign that he actually cared about my existence, and now here was Kenobi--my arch enemy--asking me what was wrong with me. He's asking me to show my feelings; like it was the most normal thing in the world.

"On a mission to Mykiddo, I tried to impress my master. He threw me in an icy lake. I was so afraid. It was that fear--that I turned into hatred--that pushed me onward. However, ever since I have had a dislike of water. I guess it reminds me of that icy swim. Really, it's not a big deal…" I said simply, not wanting to show Obi-wan how I truly feel.

"Not a big--Maul, that is horrible!" Obi-wan cries shock plastered across his bearded face as he gives Satine a sudden, sharp look. She nods as she closes in on me.

"Maul, answer me truthfully please. Do you have any normal memories of just being a normal, everyday child--of being loved and treated well?" Satine asks as she looks at me with sadness in her eyes.

"Yes, I have plenty of good childhood memories, thank you very much." I snapped crossing my arms, even though this is a bold-faced lie. I don't feel like telling them I had no decent memory of being a child at all. Though Kenobi hugs me close soon after this, it takes me a moment to realize he has senses through the Force that I am lying.

"He's lying, Satine. I can sense it clearly. He doesn't have any pleasant childhood memories at all." Obi-wan says to Satine as he holds me close, making a shiver go down my spine as I see Satine clap her both hands before her mouth in a shocked fashion.

"Oh my…oh the poor--I had no idea…"She starts, before she gets close, as well and hugs me. Suddenly, my breathing becomes heavy due to this. Before I know what's going on, I'm having difficulties catching my breath; something that had never happened to me before--not even if I had ran for a very long time.

"It's okay, Maul, we're here. Let it all out…" Obi-wan's voice rings as I feel the same strange warmth as before. Still fighting to catch my breath, the two lovers hold me close as they rubbed me over my back.

Obi-wan's POV

"On a mission to Mykiddo, I tried to impress my master. He threw me in an icy lake. I was so afraid. It was that fear--that I turned into hatred--that pushed me onward. However, ever since I have had a dislike of water. I guess it reminds me of that icy swim. Really, it's not a big deal…"Maul said as if it was the most natural thing in the galaxy for your Master to throw you into an icy lake and expect you to swim back to the shore on your own. Had Master Jinn--though I can't bear the notion of such a gentle man doing anything of the sort--done anything like that to me he, the Council would expel him; if not punish him more severely. I've heard of a Jedi long ago who had her connection to the Force stripped away, so I know just how much of a punishment they can lay down. Poor Maul, that was horrible. Abuse…

"Not a big--Maul, that is horrible!" I say in complete and utter shock as I looked at Maul, my eyes wide. I can't believe the lax way in which he said this. I can see that Satine feels the same. I now gave her a curt nod, which Satine immediately understood, closing in on maul, before she pulled him in a hug.

"Maul, answer me truthfully please. Do you have any normal memories of just being a normal, everyday child--of being loved and treated well?" Satine asks as she looks at him with sadness in her eyes, hoping he would name anything--any moment of his life--were he had had a happy memory of just being a child and being able to express himself. I know this is futile, but I just knew Sidious wouldn't give the boy any compassion or gentle care. That not the Sith way. For all their strength they claim to have, they are far too weak to show true strength: kindness.

"Yes, I have plenty of good childhood memories, thank you very much." Maul snaps at Satine. I can sense his deception through The Force. He's lying. Worse yet, I could feel the hurt he has been through all this time: the pain, the misery, the fear. It was all as clear as day in his mind, now. I gently pulled him close, my own emotions getting the better of me, as well, as I rub his back.

"He's lying, Satine. I can sense it clearly. He doesn't have any pleasant childhood memories at all." I tell Satine. I keep him close as I see Satine looking back, at me shocked, clasping both of her hands over her mouth as she looks at Maul, pity clear in her eyes.

"Oh my…oh the poor--I had no idea…" She starts, before she closes in on us and hugs him too, not at all bothered by the fact that she was getting dripping wet as I feel Maul's twin hearts beating furiously. A moment later, I notice that his eyes are wet--but not from bathwater...tears.

"It's okay, Maul, we're here. Let it all out…" I smile as I see that the young Zabrak is crying--no, not at the tears, themselves, but for the fact that this is probably the first time in his life that he is allowed to release all the pain and sadness he had been holding inside of himself for all these years. Satine hugs him more tightly, gently we both rub his.

"Now I see. You were right, Obi. You were right all along. He needs guidance. He needs us…" Satine smiles as she looks at me with tears in the corners of her eyes as I rock a still-shaking Maul in my arms--trying to calm him down.

"And it's about time you saw it too. I was already wondering where the kind and caring Satine I fell in love with went off to…" I joke as I feel that Maul had finally calmed down a little and is now just listening to our voices.

"She's been right here all along: maybe a little blind, but here." Satine replies as she wraps Maul in a towel and hugs him close like a child. I can't help but smile. She'll be such a great mother someday...

"You sure were, but now I think we both know what has to be done. He needs us." I say as I wrap my arms around the two of them and smile down at Maul. It seems that he's fallen asleep again; reliving the trauma he had endured in his time as a Sith lord had completely exhausted him. Now, he needs some extra sleep to make up for the years that he had missed.

"Yes, love. We will take him in. Though I must ask, do you mean adoption?" Satine smiles as she looks at me, then down at a sleeping Maul.

"My thoughts exactly. For now, however I'll get him washed up, then back to bed. It seems that his old Master has worn him out completely." I say as I gently take Maul out of the towel and put him in the bath. I had put in some fresh water and new soap. Now that the older man is asleep, I'll have no problems bathing him. After this, I then put his pajamas back on, before gently putting him in my lap at the side of the bed. Satine sits next to me, both of us smiling down as we hugged him, before we tuck him in and let him get his rest.

Maul's POV

After I awake again and had get dressed, Obi-wan and Satine had taken me to the city to shop. Obi-wan and Satine hold arms as they both stir the small chair in which I was sitting; again contained in my straight-jacket--this time not because I was a prisoner, but because we need to make it look like I'm still not changed. No one will believe this would happen after it being only a mere standard week and a half. Though I am feeling like it has been a month already, and I must say after what had happened this morning, I was feeling strangely lighter in my head. As if whatever had happened in that bathroom had made me softer… Argh! What I would give for a good, bloody kill right about now…

"Yet, they care about you so much. If you were to open up to them, then you would be able to feel the love no one ever gave to you before…" A voice in my head told me as we entered a shop and started to look around.

"Who is telling me this, anyway?" I think to the voice in my head as I watch Satine and Kenobi shop for the clothes needed for all of us…Including me. Almost as if they are acting like I was going to stay with them forever.

"You wouldn't believe me if I would tell you my name, but I can assure you I am not here to harm you. Why would you want to stay a Sith? After you just learned Sidious is most likely betraying you...Plus, what has being a Sith ever really gotten you?" the voice asks as I look at the young couple being cutesy together, their mouths moved with over-cheer words and laughter, but i can't hear the words they were saying.

"Because it has been my life. Always. Why would i back down? All because some people claiming to care about me?" I ask the voice in my head, rather annoyed as I feel a cool, gentle hand stroke my head while Satine's voice asked me what's wrong.

"It isn't like you ever had a choice in the matter, and now these people care about you--quite deeply, it would seem. They hug you, care for you, let you express sadness, fear, anger. Something that you know that Sidious always considered a weakness..." The voice said as I feel Obi-wan's rougher hand on my forehead as well now. He puts his stuff down and got a holocommunicator from his pocked for some odd reason.

"What is he doing, now?" I think as I look at him, questioning his actions. He seems to be panicking for some reason.

"He cares. He's calling a doctor, right now, since you're running a fever." The voice replied as Satine sits down by my side and looks at me with tears in her eyes. She strokes a hand over my cheek.

"Wait... are you Qui-gon Jinn, by any chance?" I ask, now annoyed, since I was most likely talking to the ghost of the man I killed so long ago. The Jedi have this nasty trick of sticking around as Force Ghosts.

"No. If you must know, I am the Force Ghost of the former Sith lord Darth Mustafaro." The voice says as I feel the world turn black around me. Everything fades--that is, everything save for the voice of Lord Mustafaro.

"Listen, Maul. I know who you really are--the person you can't see. I can sense the pain and sadness inside you. I'd like to advise you on something," The voice says.

"And what might that be?" I ask, curtly, as I mentally roll my eyes at that Mustafaro fellow.

"I want to advise you to really listen to who you really are. Forget your former master. All he wanted was to make you suffer so you would blindly obey his wishes, only to cast you aside when he didn't needed you anymore." The voice of Darth Mustafaro's voice says as I suddenly feel a pang off pain go through my right arm.

"Then what? Become their precious baby boy? How long will that last? Until they've had enough of me and cast me aside as well? No, thanks… " I snap, bitterly.

"They won't, for they care about you deeply already. Love is one of the strongest powers in the galaxy. They won't abandon you unless you give them a reason to." The voice of Darth Mustafaro said, which made me roll my eyes at him for saying that. That's not what the Sith believed--not the Sith philosophy.

"Show yourself! I know it's really you, Qui-gon Jinn. No Sith would ever say things like this." I say.

"That's because I am not a Sith--not anymore. At the last moment, I redeemed myself. With the help of my wife, I managed to end my life as a true hero--saving the ones I was meant to destroy, guided by the love of my family--I became a Force Ghost after I died." The voice of Darth Mustafaro says as a light flashes. I see a figure standing before me; a figure that was formerly a human, clothed in the darkest black robes. His face, covered in burn marks and looking really quite decrepit. I say, this fellow is as fearsome as I!

"See, I am not that… Qui-gon Jinn guy that you thought that I was. Just like you, I was born and raised to be the perfect killing machine--nothing but a monster--a living, yet expendable weapon for the Sith Lord I had served…until he had had enough of me and cast me aside...just as you were." The former Sith Lord says as he walks to me with a steady, confident stride.

"Lucky for me, the love of my wife, true love, got me out of that horror before it was too late. She showed me another path, another world…" Mustafaro says as he shows me images of his wife and their newborn son as they stroll over a very green Mustafar: just like the pictures I had seen in the storybook that Obi-wan and Satine had shown me the night previous.

"Duchess Satine and Obi-wan Kenobi: the two people that hated you most at first; now want to show you that same love. Now, their eyes are opened to the reason you are as you are." Mustafaro says as he shows me images of Satine and Obi-wan sitting at my bed-side, looking like they were really worried for my well-being. Even though they should know better than to fear for my life: a little illness wasn't going to do me in.  
"You sure were, but now I think we both know what has to be done. He needs us." I hear Obi-wan say as I see the two of them wrapped in a warm embrace as they stare down at me as I sleep.

"Yes, love. We will take him in. Though I must ask, do you mean adoption?" Satine smiles as she looks at Obi-wan with a loving smile, then down at my sleeping body. My hearts pound in my chest for some reason, though I don't quite understand why. Adoption would mean that I would never be able to leave this blasted palace again. I can't have that.

"Yet would that really be that awful? To have their love and care? Never having to worry about hunger or getting kicked around again?" Mustafaro asks me as I look at the two of them smiling down at me again as obi-wan replies:

"My thoughts exactly. For now, however I'll get him washed up, then back to bed. It seems that his old Master has worn him out completely." Before he went to do just that, and since I was asleep now, I can only watch helplessly as he washes me up, then puts me back in my pajamas before putting me back to bed.

"See what I mean? They're worried sick about you being ill. Would it really be that awful to live a life in which you would be loved and cared about?" Mustafaro says as the images close in on the faces of Obi-wan and Satine as Obi-wan tucks me in and gently gives me a kiss on my cheek. Both of them were seemingly worried about my well being. The thought of this made my hearts pound faster again. Feeling this strange sensation in my chest, like my hearts were burning hot; which is pretty odd if you ask me.

"Maul, Sidious has lied to you about everything. Your entire life you have been told that love is for the weak-minded and that only rage, fear, and anger are the way of the Sith, but that was all simple lies to increase the Sith's power. A power that is limited because they don't know what love feels like. Search your feelings, Maul. Then--and only then--will you find true happiness..." The Force Ghost of the former Sith told me before he dissipated. I feel that I am slowly waking up…

"Look, Satine. He's waking up." I hear a voice say from above me as the familiar faces of the Duchess and the former Jedi Knight appear above me, as well as the yellow face of my brother, who immediately comes in closer as Obi-wan says this, looking quite upset as he does so.

"Brother! Brother, can you hear me? Are you okay?" He asks as I groan and try to sit up, only to be met by Satine, who pushes me down again with something cold and wet on my forehead.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. Don't worry, Apprentice. I have suffered far worse than a little fever." I groan a little as I try to get up again; this time Satine smiles as she wraps me in the blanket and sits me in her lap. I shoot her an annoyed look, but don't protest. It would do nothing, anyway.

"A little fever…. You have been passed out for almost five hours with a terrible fever. You had us all very worried." Obi-wan says as he strokes me over my cheek as I hear Mustafaro's voice in my head   
"See what I mean? They're worried sick about you being ill. Would it really be that awful to live a life in which you would be loved and cared about?" 

"You should know better than to be worried, Kenobi. Believe me; If I can survive getting cut in half by you I can survive a mere fever--frightful or not." I say, smugly, as I look at Savage with a grin on my face.

"Yeah, but let's not mention the mental shape I found you in, brother…" Savage teased me, which made me look at him, warning him to keep his mouth shut; not wanting him to reveal how bad I had gotten--how destroyed my mind was when he discovered me. Why, it could ruin my reputation! I can't have that.

"How bad was it?' Obi-wan ask now, as he looks at Savage with a worried look on his face. He grins, despite the warning look on my face.

"Very bad; didn't remember his name or were he was from. In fact, all he remembered was you…and that he wanted revenge…" Savage said as he looked from Obi-wan to Satine and then to me, hesitating a little when he saw I look at him quite angrily for telling them this.

"Wow, I don't know whether I should be frightened or flattered that you kept on remembering my name when you went insane…" Obi-wan commands as he looks at me with shocked eyes and a wide grin on his face.

"You should be worried, I think, since I almost got you after that. If Ventress hadn't showed up to save your skin, I would have surely finished you off for good that day." I smirk, which earned me a small tickle from Kenobi. Damn it.

"Yeah about that: you're quite the maniac…for someone who is so ticklish…" Obi-wan smirks, before he tickles me even more, making me wriggle away from him giggling loudly. I am going to kill him for this.

"You would have tickled the life out of him, and we wouldn't have gotten to know the rascal behind the mask." Satine smiles as she tickles me as well. Forgetting for a moment that I am, Ill I throw myself at them and tickle them back with all my might, while Savage looks at us, gobsmacked, since he had never been tickled before as well.

"True, and you and I had never admitted our feelings for one another." Kenobi says, patting my back when I start to cough violently.

"You should probably lie down again. You're still ill." Obi-wan says as he picks me up from were the tickle-fight had ended and places me back in the bed, tucking me back under the covers.

"Yeah, sure…" I say as I sit up under the covers, fixing the pillows in my back to make me able to sit up with the covers still around me.

"The medical droid said you were in very, very bad shape. We contacted Mother Talzin for help, but she couldn't come physically, since, Dathomir is no more." Obi-wan says as he looks at me sadly.

"Yeah, I know… " I say shortly, before I look down. Even though Dathomir wasn't the place I had grown up, I still was sad it had been destroyed.

"However, she sent me the talisman that she gave me to find you and through that, she was able to come here in a non-physical form. She'll collect some things she'll need and come when she is done and knows that it is safe to leave Dathomir for a while." Savage says as he shows me the little blue pendant he has around his neck, which I faintly recognize seeing around his neck when he came to save from Lotho Minor.

"You managed to contact Mother? How?" I ask as I look at Savage, shocked, not understanding how he managed to contact Mother Talzin on such short notice.

"Yeah, after you passed out, the duchess and the former Jedi came to see me. They told me that you had fallen ill and that they were fearing for your well-being. They went on to ask if I knew a way to contact Mother Talzin and ask her for help in finding a cure. I told them I could and after I contacted her she sent me the talisman and herbs with her magic. You don't remember, but you have been ill before. When you were very small; she had been worried sick about you then as well." Savage said as he looked at me, sternly.

"How young is "very young"? Since I would surely remember if I had fallen ill before..." I say, sternly.

"I'm sure you didn't. You were like three or four weeks old. You had ate a pompbour berry Mother keeps for her poisons on one of your strolls through the house. Thank goodness I saw the colour of the berry before you put It in your mouth or we wouldn't have been here." Savage jokes lightly as he put his metallic hand on mine.

"Yeah, sure…" I say as I look to the side, annoyed, since I'm sure he was making that up as we spoke. I would have remembered something like that for sure.

"Not really. Humans normally can't recall anything from a certain age--since you're classed as a "near-human", I'd say it probably applies to you, too. Since you were so young when it happened, it's only natural that you don't remember," The voice of Mustafaro says as he appears at the side of my bed.

"But I am not normal, so it would only be natural if I did remember it." I think as I mentally roll my eyes at him.

"Would you like to know if it is the truth then? Remember the times before you became Darth Maul, Lord of the Sith?" Mustafaro asks me as he looks at me with a raised eyebrow.

"No. The past is in the past. I can't change anything that has already happened, anyway. Why look back?" I think to Mustafaro as Savage contacts Mother Talzin.

"To see the love in the eyes of your mother and brother, and maybe realize that Mother Talzin would had never let go of you if she had been given the choice?" Mustafaro says as a vague image flashes through my mind of a far younger Savage Oppress running to my side and placing a hand on my forehead as he looked at me worriedly, before he called our mother…

"They indeed seem worried for me, yet that was when I was so small; before I was turned into a Sith Assassin…a weapon." I think as I see Mother Talzins figure above me, smiling down at me as she was examining me, her mouth moving, but I can't hear the words she said…

"Mother…" I groan as I shook away Mustafaro for a moment so that I'm able to speak to her.

"You are very sick, my son. Have you done some ice swimming again?" Mother Talzin asks as she places a loving hand on my forehead, then at my cheek, before she sits down by my side and started to mix some of the herbs she had sent to Savage before.

"No mother, and I have been eating better than I used to do, as well lately. Healthy for a male Zabrak's doing." I say as I smile. Do I put a hidden message under it? That Savage has told me about the way my fellow Night-brothers are being treated under the dominance of the Night-sisters?

"Hmmm, have you eaten anything new for your doing?" mother asks as she looks at me sternly, ignoring the hidden message under my comment--probably saving that for another time, or just ignoring it because there is no way to correct that anymore. All Night-brothers and sisters had been killed. We were the last of our kind.

"Vegetables. I never got many of that under my old Master. He always told me healthy food was for fools and that, as a Zabrak, I'm carnivorous anyway…" I say after a moment of thinking about what I had eaten recently; what was new to me.

"Woah! You've seriously never ate vegetables before in your life?" Obi-wan asks me as he looked at me, shocked, since he must have thought I was kidding at my first dinner when I told him that I had never eaten vegetables before.

"Well, no. I told you that before. Master thought eating healthy food was for fools and weaklings. He mostly made me hunt for my own food--mostly meat--to satiate my hunger for blood and feed my desire to hunt. Sometimes, I added some roots and berries, but never vegetables, potatoes, and meat." I say calmly as I let out a small yawn.

"That's horrible! Children need vegetables to grown strong and healthy. It's a wonder you never fell ill before…" Satine says before she pulled me in a hug. Honestly, I can't believe she's still surprised by any of this, any more.

"Eh." I simply say as I look from Satine to Obi-wan now, since I have always been taught that I don't needed healthy stuff. Lord Sidious has always told me that meat is all I needed to eat; that the food would fill my physical hunger while the hunt and the kill would still my mental hunger.

"Yes, meat is full of good fats, but vegetables are full of proteins and protein that are good for your body and will help you grow…" Satine explains, smiling as she rocks me a little in her arms. Yes, yes. Healthy this and healthy that. She's tiring me.

"Your body is most likely lacking those things now, and as a result your immune system isn't strong enough to defend you against colds and viruses." Obi-wan explains calmly as he looks from me to Mother Talzin with a calm look on his face. Will this after-school special end?

"You will be fine now, though. The herbs I gave you will strengthen your immune system. After, at least, three weeks rest and you will be fine again," Mother Talzin says as she gives me a stern look.

"Mother, you know I hate taking bed-rest. I am not the sort to simply lie in bed and laze about all day." I protest as I feel Savage close in on me, clearly on to something.

"I know my son, but you have to try or you will never fully recover." Mother Talzin replies as I feel Savage take my arm in his hand. Before I can pull loose or ask him what he was doing, he pricks my arm with something. Everything around me fades, and I faint.

3rd Person POV

"Three weeks rest and he will be as good as new. I will check on him through my link with Savage in a few days to see how he is doing. Call upon me the same way if his situation worsens." Mother Talzin tells the others in the room as she uses her magic to clear away her belongings.

"Thank you for your time, Mother Talzin. We really appreciate your time." Obi-wan says as Satine tucks Maul in his bed, after which both parents stroke his head lovingly. Mother Talzin smiles a little, since she could clearly sense the love that the two feel for her son.

"That's quite alright. He is still my son--you forget. I would have done this for any of my kin." Mother Talzin replies as she glances from the sick Maul to Savage who looks up at her.

"Yes, about that. Maul-- as you know-- kicked up quite some dust the past few years; until my fiance and I got him to calm down and re-think his position as a Sith Assassin..." Obi-wan says as he looks down at the sleeping form of the sick Zabrak, wearily.

"Maul has been living here with us, and it seems he is finally warming up towards us." Obi-wan starts as he looks at Satine who nods. "In that time we have grown quite fond of Maul's presence in the castle. Your son is quite the person--if he isn't trying to murder you." Obi-wan says, carefully, knowing what the Mother off the Night-sisters was capable of if he were to anger her.

"That sheds some light on that mystery. I already wondered how my son ended up in your custody, Master Jedi." Mother Talzin.

"Well, about that...I am no longer a Jedi. i went into early retirement so I would be able to engage myself to the duchess Satine, with whom i fell in love a long time ago." Obi-wan smiles warmly as he looks at Satine.

"In any way, Maul has lived here for quite some time now, and we have grown quite fond of his presence. He's slowly starting to warm up towards this place and we really think that if he wants to, he could be a good ruler for Mandalore. In other words, what I'm trying to ask is..." Obi-wan stutters a little as he searches for the right words to ask Mother Talzin for her blessing to adopt her son.

"What my dear Obi-wan and I are trying to ask is for your blessing to adopt Maul... and Savage if he wants to become part of our family as our sons, as well..." duchess Satine smiles, trying to hide her anxiety, as she looks at her fiance. He nods thankfully for her help, while Savage looks at them, perplexed. To be a part of a family again? To have a home and a chance to do something useful with his life? He had never gotten an offer like that before--In fact, he hadn't even thought about it before. Sure, he had his brother all this time, and they were, in a strange way, quite close; but to settle down in a family and live a normal life had never been an option until now. For a moment, he stands there, uncertain of what to say...until Mother Talzin speaks up:

"These two had an important role to play which is now drawing to its end...I can give my blessing to give the boys to you...but you will also need their blessing for adoption." the witch says as she looks at Savage now, who was looking down with a quizzical look on his face, not sure what to decide.

"I...I've never had a family before--except for Feral. He would have been thrilled by the idea of a calm life in a home with a family around him." He sighs, a sad, long sigh rife with heart-ache and regret. "After he died, I thought I was all alone until mother told me about my other brother, Maul. I love going on adventures and facing danger with him, but I have always wondered what it would be like to have actual parents; like everyone else." Savage says as he looks from Mother Talzin to Obi-wan Kenobi and duchess Satine, who are holding one another.

"Then what keeps you from trying it out now? Maybe you like it, maybe you don't. If you like it, you're more than welcome to stay. If you don't like if, you can always go back to Dathomir or somewhere else if you like, but at least try and see what it is like to have a home and a normal family first." Satine offers as she sits down a little closer to Savage and places a hand on his knee gently.

"You really think my brother will even consider adoption?" Savage asks as he looked at Obi-wan and Satine, puzzled.

"Yes, he changed a lot in the week and a half that he's been here with us. He might keep away from you at first but, eventually he will show you as well. I'm sure of that." Satine states as she pulls the massive Zabrak man in her arms and hugs him, gently rubbing him over the back of his head in a calming way, mindful of his horns.

"Then, I will consider this as a option as well. Do I won't promise It is going to get easy." Savage smiles as he looks at Satine and Obi-wan with a calm look, then at Maul who was now calmly asleep.

"I think you made a good choice. How about I help you get settled while Obi gets over the adoption with Mother Talzin." Satine says as she gets up and takes Savage by the hand, who looks at her, smiling as he nodded, getting up as well. Instantly, Satine notes how tall Savage was and how muscular he is. Hugging him is going to be a little tricky…

"One thing: before you go with your new family. There is one more thing that needs to be done." Mother Talzin smiles as she waves her hand, chanting a short but simple spell, and before either of the new parents could do anything, Mother Talzin had revoked the spell that had made Savage look so threatening; making his horns and his muscles shrink in size a lot. His visage becomes a lot less intimidating and a lot more like his brother, Maul.

"Mother, you reclaimed the spell. How? Why?" Savage asks as he looks at his mother with a puzzled look on his face, not understanding why she undid the spell they had put on him or how it was even possible she retracted the spell on her own. After all, she had needed several other sisters to put the spell on him.

"Because you won't need the spell anymore if this is the path you want to go down, my son." Mother Talzin said, with a little hint of sadness in her voice--sad that her son wants to stay on Mandalore with his brother instead of coming home with her and try to rebuild the clan somehow. Deep down, she understands why he doesn't want to return. Knowing he had known nothing but the strict rules of the Night-brother clan, which she knows he most likely hates. She finds it was totally understandable that he would rather stay somewhere were he would be loved and cared for.

"I hereby give my blessing for the adoption. If they both want to stay, if not, then it is up to Maul to decide whether or not he wants to leave Savage Oppress here with you or not." Mother Talzin says as she smiles down, sadly, at Maul, who is still asleep. She knows that Savage had been around his brother, Feral, for so long that he might consider staying now that she had taken away the spell that made him act so monstrous. All the events that were to follow depended on what Maul would decide to do, and deep down, she prayed it was staying; for she knows that the Sith path would end with both of their deaths, as well as her own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that said I end the chapter! I hope you all enjoyed it! ��A/N
> 
> I thought that if anikan could somehow become a force ghost at the end of "revenge of the sith" after he redeemed himself, the same would go for darth mustafaro after he redeemed himself and saved the jedi he intended to kill. Don't hate me if I am wrong please! ��Maul is slowly but surely getting adjusted to the life in a family and starts to grow fond of satine and obi wan being "parent" to him, so if maul starts to fall out of character a little that is because he is slowly but surely getting a change of hearth… 
> 
> I thought that even do mother talzin didn't had maul under her care for to long (I thought I saw in the comic he was around the three ore four years old when he was stolen away from mother talzin) she would know how to cure his illness. 
> 
> Because savage has grew up on dathomir and has most likely suffered a lot under the rules of the nightsisters, he would consider staying easier on (especially after the spell of mother talzin was reclaimed) because of that… 
> 
> Well that was all for now! I hope you all enjoyed it! 
> 
> Please review!


	4. chapter 4: savage's choice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: any songs included belong to their rightfull owners and I just used them in the story because I liked them…thank you, have fun reading

Maul's Redemption: Chapter 4: Savage's Choice

By: Femkeschattig  
Edited by: MissNemesisFace  
Disclaimer: Any songs included belong to their rightful owners: I just used them in the story because I like and saw them to be fitting. Thank you. Have fun reading.

Editor's Note: I am not familiar with this song, so I chose to leave it as it was.

Chapter 4: Savage's Choice

Normal Pov:

A week and a half passes by and Maul, slowly but surely, recovers from his illness. Meanwhile, Savage slowly starts to get used to the life in a normal family. Savage has some trouble adapting to his new life: especially rules. Not being able to go outside whenever he wants and having to use a knife and a fork to eat--since those had been things that he had never learned on Dathomir (nor did he understand why people used a fork and knife while eating goes far faster when you use your hands instead)--but soon he becomes used to these rules. He loves that he is being treated fairly now, and when the Captain of the Guards became sixty-seven and went into retirement, Savage agreed to take his place. This way, he will be able to do something around the castle, aside from walking and standing around all day. Plus, the guards still get into fights from time-to-time--and, not matter what, he still loves a good fight.

"Besides, I love to order people around, just as much as my brother does. " Savage smirks as he winks at his adoptive mother. He had received the armor and badge that marks him as the captain of the guards.

"Good, they need some discipline, but don't be too hard on them okay? We still follow pacifistic rules here. " Satine smiles as she rubs the Zabrak male over his head--careful to not prick herself on his horns--in an affectionate way. He smiles back as he nods and replies:

"I'll try, but I won't make any promises." However, he does keep his word; he is a strict, but fair, leader who has an eye for trouble. Under Savage's guidance, the guards become even more alert in regards to any emerging trouble, and under Savage's leadership, the guards and Obi-wan Kenobi finds out early-on that Pre Vizsla and the Death Watch had taken the throne and warned the Jedi. The Order manages to arrest Vizsla before he could make any attempts on the Queen's life, as well as most of the Death Watch. Only Bo-Katan and a few others escaped, for the time being that is. For Savage knows she has to come out eventually and when she does, she will be arrested.

"Nice work Savage, already catching criminals and saving the Queen's life on your first week, eh?" Obi-wan says, giving a wry smile during tea the following afternoon, as the Zabrak has a moment off from his duties.

"Just keeping an eye out for trouble. You know, I have to keep you and Miss Satine safe. It's my duty--as far as I know. No big deal, really." Savage teases back as he takes a sip from his tea, smiling softly at the taste; this is his favorite tea, after all. They already know him quite well, despite his short time in their family.

"Well, would you look at that, Satine? One moment he tries to kill you, the other he is saving your life. He sure is talented." Obi-wan teases Savage.

"And without almost getting killed all the time." Savage smirks as he takes another sip from his tea. "Which I greatly appreciate." he says to Satine, who smiles in return, acknowledging her adoptive son wouldn't miss danger one bit, nor the fact that he has to run about, policing everyone all day long.

"That must, indeed, be quite a relief: not having to put yourself in danger all the time." Satine jokes lightly as she sips her tea as well, "and as a pacifist, my dear Obi-wan, I believe there is good in everyone. I already knew Savage would do well." Satine says as she winks and smiles at Obi-wan. He returns the gesture and puts his tea down before the two lovers get Savage in his first-ever tickle fight. Naturally, he loses, due to the fact that he was up against both Satine and Obi-wan, and has no experience on how to fight back. Laughing until his sides hurt, he finds himself conflicted by his new emotions. So distracted is he, that he does not see Mother Talzin take form behind him, smiling softly as she watched the young, yellow Zabrak laughing as his caretakers tickle him.

'You have come a long way, Savage Opress. You're doing well in this world. Perhaps I made a good choice in allowing the Jedi and the Duchess to adopt you and your brother.' The Dathomirian Witch thinks as she finds herself smiling. As Savage is helped back up, she softly disappears again, before Savage can see her, since she doesn't want him to know she can come and go freely.

"Yeah, do I love the thrill of facing danger, as well." Savage replies as he smiles at Satine, picking up his cup and sipping from his own tea again. "Can't see myself ever going full-on pacifist, though…with all due respect, Your Highness." Savage says, catching himself and correcting his statement to avoid offending her. However, Satine isn't offended at all by what Savage said. She knows she can't force the Zabrak to fully embrace her life-style and become part of it. He has lived in a world of violence all his life; he can't become a pacifist in such a short time--it's unrealistic.

"Well, maybe some action will come your way after a while--just not the life-treating sort anymore." Obi-wan yawns as he puts his empty cup down and stretches, secretly hoping things would shake up a little soon, himself. Despite the fact that a Jedi is not to crave adventure and excitement, Obi-wan has always felt that pull--that thrill, himself.

"Well, with Death Watch still on the loose, who knows? Remember, dear, we didn't catch Pre Vizsla's right-hand woman, Bo-katan." Satine reminds her fiance, her face betraying the concern and--yes--fear she feels that there is still someone out there who wants her dead.

"Yeah, though the chance is very small that she will target your life now. She knows she will risk capture if she moves on you, now." Savage says as he smiles at Duchess Satine, trying to reassure her of her safety.

"True. Yet, despite that, I would rest a lot easier if she was in jail." Duchess Satine says as she puts her now-empty cup down.

"Don't worry, ma'am. I've got my guards on her trail, and I put up extra security measures everywhere. No one comes in or out unnoticed." Savage assures his adoptive mother as he put his cup down, as well, smiling. Suddenly, his medallion glows brightly.

"I know Savage, but please just call me Satine. I'm not just your boss, remember?" Satine says as she notices the glowing medallion.

"I'll try, Satine. Hold on a second. I do believe that this would be Mother Talzin wanting to check on Maul. I'll take my leave, now. Have a pleasant day." Savage said, bowing shortly before leaving.

"He is such a good natured boy, yet I wish he would stop being so polite around us all the time." Satine says as she pours herself another cup of tea. Taking a sip, she looks up, eyeing the door with sadness in her eyes.

"He'll come around, Satine. He's not used to women treating him like an equal--as more than just a dumb brute or breeding-stock. That is not how things work were he is from." Obi-wan says as he strokes at his beard.

"I do hope so. He is our son, now. He should be able to fool around, call us mom and dad if he wants--things like that. I don't like that he's on edge all the time." Satine says as she looks at her lap, sighing in a mix of frustration and sadness.

"I know dear, but both of them have been through a lot. We should be patient with them, give them the space that they need to get to that in their own time. I think Savage will be easier to come around to that than Maul since. After all, I didn't cut him in half." Obi-wan smirks as he says this--even though he knows that pride is the path to the Dark Side.

"Who knows? Maybe Maul will surprise you by calling you dad first." Satine says, barely suppressing a chuckle.

"Yeah sure, and Lightsabers can fly on their own." Obi-wan says as he rolls his eyes at Satine.

"Obi-wan, you'll never know if you don't try and believe in it. You've given him a second chance. A seed of good has been planted in his once stone-cold hearts. Now you have to believe in him, to keep the seed growing." Satine says as she eyes the door, behind which Savage sits at Maul's side in the lotus position, mumbling a few words before Mother Talzin appears, smiling as she swoops over to Maul's bed and places a hand on his forehead. No matter what, in her heart-of-hearts, he will always be that little boy that Sheev Palpatine stole all those years ago.

"He is doing a lot better already. They're taking good care of him." The Mother of Dathomir says as she smiles down at both him and Savage.

"Yeah, they seem to care a lot about both of us." Savage replies as he smiles down at his brother, who was sleeping peacefully. "It's strange how match they care. The things we did to them…" Savage says, no small amount of confusion in his voice as he looks up at Mother Talzin--a quizzical expression on his black and yellow face.

"Yes, but you have learned a lot in a short time, Savage Opress. You and your brother have both changed a lot. " Mother Talzin says as she looks from Savage to Maul and back again.

"How so?" Savage asks tilting his head to the side and knitting his brow-line. Maul moans a little, silently waking up.

"You have both learned from the mistakes you have made in the past by both accepting this place as your home and willingly accepting the kindness of the former Jedi and the Duchess," Mother Talzin says wisely, not yet realizing that Maul has woken up. Neither does Savage, who is sitting with his back turned to his brother--neither of them know that Maul is following their conversation.

Maul's POV

"I don't know…I mean, I have accepted this place as my home and these people as my kin, but Maul seems leery of this still. I don't know what I'll do if he says he wants to go back to our old life." Savage says as he looks at his lap dejectedly. 

'Somehow, it seems that my brother has grown quite fond of Obi-wan and Satine in the little time I have been ill. He still has a lot to learn. Peace is a lie. Only through the Code of the Sith will you get what you want...though it is odd how peaceful I feel, right now. If that is true, and it feels so strange to be here...' a voice in my head calls as I look from my brother to Mother Talzin, who is smiling as she tells Savage I won't, that I also have feel the spark of love planted in me. She really didn't know me. Once this illness is finished--once I am well, I am will leave this infernal place and never look back.

'Well, then you will lose your apprentice and brother. He seems to be very fond of this life and won't be willing to give it up.' Mustafaro's voice says as he appears next to me on the other side of my bed. He lies on his back, his legs crossed at the knee and his arms behind his head as he looks up at the ceiling.

'My apprentice will do as I say. Savage won't fail me.' I think to him harshly as I look to the side.

"Perhaps, but he won't be happy anymore. I don't think he will forget what he has felt here so easily," Mustafaro says as his dim yellow eyes trail off to Savage and Mother Talzin talking. "Neither will you. You only want to go back because that life if all you have ever known, ever since you were a scared little boy. But you're not a child anymore. At least, not on the outside. No, on the inside, the part of you that has always fell abused under Sidious is still a child; A child that now wants to come out." Mustafaro says calmly, which makes me look down and think about that for a moment. Before my training started, I had been a normal kid. True, I hadn't had any moments of actual happiness, but I was normal. I still recall running around the building on Mustafar in which I was housed--or more, held captive--talking and asking a hundred questions at once until the circuits of the droids that were to care for me broke. Of course, that all stopped when my training started. Though a part of me wished it could have lasted for a bit longer. I always loved seeing those droids explode because of my childish ranting and ceaseless questioning.

"What would you give to be like that again? No more pressure, no more yelling or abusive treatment. Just being able to speak your mind and be happy--to be truly free." Mustafaro says as he shows me some images of Savage getting tickled by Satine and Obi-wan, then of me in Obi-wan's lap as he was reading to me; which had, indeed, felt strange to me because no one has tried to neither abuse me or yell at me. This was all I had ever known as a child: fear, pain, abuse.

"See? Everyone needs love. The Sith are foolish to think they can take over the galaxy and seeing how Sidious treated you, he is the biggest fool of them all. Depriving a child of love doesn't mean that he won't be able to feel love at a later age." Mustafaro says as he places a hand on my shoulder, which feels awfully real for a fever-induced hallucination.

"Your heart slowly starts to open up for love, and if you were to look deep down inside yourself, you would see that the part of you that has never been child before doesn't want to leave anymore. Do you know why? It is because here, you're safe and wanted, the very things you were denied as a child." Mustafaro says, after which he disappears and I managed to sit up, groaning a little as I do.

"Brother! You're awake!" Savage smiles, his eyes bright, as he looks at me over his shoulder, relief plain on his face, even though I had no idea why. I hadn't been in any real danger or something. It was just a little fever. I was bisected at the waist. A simple fever won't put me down.

"Yes, no need to worry about me. It's just a fever." I reply, coughing violently after that remark. Damn. I thought it was over...I'll never get out of this bed, now.

"You have been in quite the nasty position, my son. Everyone has been very worried for your well-being--including your foster family." Mother Talzin says with her usual solemn tone.

"They shouldn't have been. I am stronger than that, nor do I want their pity." I snap as I look to the side, hiding that I am slightly touched by that fact they had worried about my illness, something Sidious had never done. If I had ever come back injured, he had just shrugged it off "Endure it! You will only get stronger from it!" He had snapped at me the first time I had gotten injured during a mission, because I had been rather young and had wined a little about the pain I felt in my body.

"You see it now? They care about you enough to be actually worried when you fall ill or get hurt because they love and care about you." Mustafaro's voice says as he appears next to me once again.

"Love is a lie, only through anger and suffering I will gain strength and power." I think to him firmly, just as Sidious has drilled into my very core my entire life, but as I think this to Mustafaro, I see Obi-wan and Satine come in, hurrying. Before I can do anything, Obi-wan lies a cool hand on my forehead.

"His fever has suddenly worsened again. How can that be?" I hear Obi-wan ask as he looks from Mother Talzin to me with an anxious look in his eyes.

"I think I now know what causes his illness, Master Jedi, and it is something we cannot cure." Mother Talzin says as she gently strokes my cheek.

"What is it?" Obi-wan asks as he looks up at my birth-mother, his eyes wide in shock.

"It is a old illness--older than I know--caused by the inner fight he is fighting right, now. He can come out, but you need to talk. Talk to him..." Mother Talzin says as she waves a hand over my head, then disappears into green smoke.

"What do we need to say?" Obi-wan questions as he looks at Satine surprised.

"I think I have a idea what she means. Remember, my dear Obi-wan, he has never felt loved or cared about, and right now he is fighting himself. Maybe we could help him along by, you know, letting him know that he isn't alone in his fight--that are with him and want to help him fight; to get better." Satine replies as I feel her shift me in her lap, after which her fingers softly stroke my cheek.

"Hey, Maul, you're in a bad shape. We know what causes it, now, though, so just hang in there." Satine's voice softly says as I fell Obi-wan closes in on me as well as well as Savage.

"Yeah, and thanks a lot for confusing me so much I fell ill; much appreciated…" I think as I stare daggers at them. I feel both my brother and Obi-wan close in on the hug.

"But know that you're not alone: were here for you. We all want to help you, since we're family, now. We see you as family, both of us. I forgive you for threatening my life that time, Maul. Please, please get better." Satine's voice says as I feel something wet hit my cheek. A tear? She was crying… Why is she crying?

"You're so ill… you could die, and it saddens her because she cares." Mustafaro says as he gets in front the place at which I am currently being cuddled as if I'm some sort of over-grown infant. Argh! Once I got better, they're going to pay for this humiliation. They'll rue the day, I swear.

"Let me guess: you have something to do with my illness suddenly becoming worse again?" I ask him as I feel my brother's rough fingers lightly touch my cheek. Not him, now, too...

"No, your body is, as your mother put it, fighting itself. The half of you that wants to stay is fighting the half of you that wants to go back to your old life of abuse, hunger, and suffering." Mustafaro says as I hear Savage speak in the background.

"Brother, I know I should only be your apprentice, but your also my brother. I have cared for you from the moment I found you on Lotho Minor. I'm not very comfortable saying this, but I know Feral would want me to be honest with you, now." His voice says as he strokes my face with his rough hand, jostling me back into attention. "I care about you, brother, deeply, as both a master and as a brother. Please, please get better. I can't bear losing you, too." Savage says with a sad voice, after which I feel Satine move, most likely to wrap her arm around him, as well to comfort him.

"Who the heck is Feral? And what has he to do with me being ill?" I thought as I hear Satine whisper kind words to Savage, most likely my brother is in tears now, the weakling. He still has a long way to go before he could be even half as strong as me.

"Who is Feral, though? You haven't told me that one yet." Obi-wan asks, suddenly, after Satine's hushed voice stops whispering to Savage.

"Because it is a bit hard for me to speak about that. Feral is...was..my other brother. He was the one family member I had back in the days of my youth. We were very close and I always looked out for him, since he was rather weak and pacifistic. Man, Maul would sure have scolded him a lot if he had made it this far." Savage says, after which he gives a sad chuckle, probably at the idea of me scolding my supposed younger brother.

"Then Ventress came, looking for an apprentice and a mate. Through all the tests, I kept looking out for him since he couldn't make a hole in a mere tree, and in the end I was selected. I surrendered to keep him safe. I thought that would be the last time I would see him but, the witches imprisoned him without me knowing it. After I was transformed into that other form you all saw me in, I…I was told to...to kill him..." Savage says, explaining to me who this Feral was for starters, and by seconds. Wow, that was kinda rough. Though I wonder why Sidious hadn't came up with that one. It was something gruesome, he would surely have enjoyed to watch.

"Wow, that must have been horrible to have to do." Satine sighs as I feel her puts a hand before her mouth in shock.

"I wasn't myself at that moment; I had no hesitation to do it, but that doesn't mean it didn't affect me. Sometimes, in my dreams, I still hear his voice begging for his life...then my voice calling him a weakling." Savage says, sorrow thick in his voice.

"Well, that explains why he groans in his sleep, sometimes. He's still suffering from his first kill. How pathetic. Seriously, Savage Opress, you seriously need a lot of work before you’re a true Sith." I think as I mentally roll my eyes at my brother's weakness.

"That's only natural. No one would be left untouched by the death of a family member, especially if you killed a family member yourself. I understand that Ventress made you do it; it must have been a horrible experience." Obi-wan says as I feel him shift closer to my brother.

"Not if you’re a strong Sith like me. I killed thousands, including a girl that had a crush on me and it left upon me no scratch or guilt." I think as I fondly recall the many kills and the proud look on my Master's face as he had proclaimed that I was ready for my Sith tattoos--the best and most painful days of my life.

"Yeah, better don't tell my brother that I blame myself for Feral's death. He will most likely just think it's weak. He told me he killed thousands, including a girl that had a crush on him before he became a official Sith Lord and it didn't bother him one bit… " Savage pleads to the former Jedi and Duchess. "If he were to know my first kill still haunts my dreams i will never hear the end of it."

"Too late buddy, I heard everything you said and you are, indeed, a big softy. " I think I roll my eyes at his statement.

"Is he? Don't you think it natural that he blames himself for the death of the one he swore to protect for as long as he lived?" Mustafaro's voice asks me as I suddenly see Savage standing before orange-yellow Zabrak, who looks up at Savage with a sad look as he clenches his waist in his one arm.

"As long as I live! You will not harm him!" I heard Savage call out, looking quite the same as I knew him, only his horns were shorter and his muscles slightly smaller, as my vision turns around, I see my brother looking at Ventress, who smirk at him, smugly, as he looks at the sad-looking boy.

"Leave us!" Ventress sneers at the boy, after which Savage starts to fight Ventress and loses, pledging his life to the Witch, after which I see him step into Ventress's speeder-bike with her to leave. As he does so, I follow his gaze to the same Zabrak boy as before, who is still clutching his stomach in his arms as he looks at him with heart-break and confusion in his eyes.

"Goodbye, Feral…I will never forget you." I hear Savage's thoughts as he looks at the Zabrak one last time before the scene shifts into the lair of the Dathomir Witches, Savage stands before the table that I recognize as the table upon which I had gotten my new legs. He looks the way I know him; long horns and rough muscles, looking at himself, obviously pleased.

"Bring in the prisoner." Ventress sneers, after which I see two Dathomir Witches bring in Feral, shoving him to the ground. Savage looks down at him, coldly. "Now, for the final test." Ventress says as she nods to Feral.

"Savage?" Feral questions as he looks at our brother, eyes wide, unable to process what he is seeing.

"Kill him." Ventress says, coldly. Savage immediately moves to do it, as Feral speaks up.

"Savage, you know me--I'm your kin! Do not do this!" The young Zabrak pleads as he looks at Savage, a pleading look in his eyes. He holds fast, seemingly recognizing Feral and hesitating to kill the brother he swore to protect.

"I said: kill him" Ventress spits as she smacks Savage firmly in the face with the back of her hand. Savage roughly picks Feral up by his throat and starts to squeeze, strangling him.

"No, brother! Brother, please!" Feral begs as he starts to gasp for air, but Savage doesn't reply as Feral's neck begins to crack under Savage's firm grip.

"You beg? WEAKLING!" Savage snaps at his brother as he struggles to find a single breath.

"Savage...Savage…" Feral begs, before his neck snaps and as Savage lets him fall to the ground…death…

"Wow, that was quite harsh. No wonder the poor fellow was so sad…" The voice of Mustafaro says as I see how Savage then leaves with Ventress. Though I can't help but wonder why he didn't kill Ventress once he realized what he had just been forced to do.

"Well, he knew he would never be strong enough to take on Ventress, now. She was far more experienced than he was at that point. Perhaps he knew that he had to wait for his chance to take revenge; until he was stronger. Perhaps he was too sad about his brother's death to do it." Mustafaro says as I feel Obi-wan's hand stroke my cheek. He needs to stop doing that, or he's going to lose a hand...

"In any case, Maul, I know you can hear me right now. I want you to know that I forgive you. I forgive you for killing my Master all those years ago on Naboo. I forgive you for killing so many, and mostly, I forgive you for threatening my beloved. If you can…if you can forgive me for cutting you in half and making jokes about it every now and then. That's an ass thing to do, and I'm sorry about it. Maul, you’re a great person and I know you're not that vile monster everyone believed you to be. I have seen a very different Maul in the past few weeks." Obi-wan says as his voice breaks a little. I feel tears fall on my face again.

"Really, Kenobi? You're such a softie…not that I had expected more from a mere Jedi." I think as I roll my eyes at him for starting to cry over someone who was just a little feverish. How has their order survived so long? How did the ancient Sith lose to these people?!

"Please, come back to us. We're all so worried about you. We all are because we love and care about you and want you back here with us--not to use you for any cause, but because we truly care about you. The real you, not that monster Sidious forced you to be." Obi-wan's voice says, which makes me gasp a little, since no one has ever said something like that to me before, and it seriously touches me that Obi-wan, despite everything, forgave my crimes and wanted to see the real me. THE REAL ME--man, I had almost forgotten who the real Maul was! The child of Dathomir, before Sidious and his horrible training.

"Yet, you can still become him if you'd like; if you were to let them guide you and accept this place as your home, you would find that your still him. Deep down, that little boy never left and you will find him if you let love guide you…"Mustafaro says. Suddenly, a very familiar-sounding lullaby hit me:

Suja, suja, Sparkle, the moon shines out there  
You're a stingray, but do not pull it on  
You're a stingray, you've already understood that  
The lions have mane and the tigers have stripes  
And our aunt squirrel has a red wool tail  
But you all have spines and that's so much worth it.

 

Sleep my little dumbbell, then you get big and fat  
Then you'll be just as prickly pig as your father and I  
The elephant has a slurf, the bears have claws  
The parrot has feathers of that green and the blue  
And our uncle giraffe has a long neck  
But you all have spines and that's not crazy anymore.

Suja, suja, Prikkeltje, it's already awful late  
You are the most beautiful stingray that exists  
The cats have mustaches and they can spin through that  
The cows have horns and the fish have fins  
And our cousin the otter, has a brown velvet jacket  
But you all have spines  
and those still come in handy.

The voice of my birth-mother sings as I feel someone rock me, somehow making me feel at peace. Though I know peace is a lie: only through anger, hate, and suffering I could get what I want.

"Yet, if that's true why do I feel so good now?" A voice rings through my head as my unconscious body snuggles into the warmth of whoever was holding me right now. Nonsense! This has to be because I'm unconscious: if I were in my right mind, I would let no one snuggle me. This was far below me--below any Sith Lord--even though somewhere inside me it feels odd...to be rocked...cared about. Like any normal person of my age should be.

"This is what Mustafaro means. The spark of the child that Sidious always kept away... Aaargh! Why am I thinking this?! I can't change the past; why do I care that they can offer me." I think as I catch myself. Why am I thinking such useless things? I can't change the past. Sidious might have ruined my past and my future, but I am not going to be their precious little boy just so they can cast me aside again when they've had enough of me.

"And what if they don't? What if they actually make you happier than you've ever been in your miserable life? " Mustafaro says as he comes to sit on my bedside again as I feel four strong arms cuddle me close, giving off a strange warmth.

"They won't, you'll see. Once Kenobi and the worthless Mandalorian have their own little abomination, they'll just throw Savage and I out like garbage." I spit back at Mustafaro, who smirks back at me.

"How can you be so sure? Mother Talzin didn't cast Savage aside once you came into the picture, nor when Feral was born. So why would Satine and Obi-wan abandon you?" Mustafaro asks as he shows me Obi-wan and Satine still sitting at my bedside, their worried gazes fixed upon me as Savage talk to Mother Talzin about a possible cure for my illness.

"Wake up, Maul. You're not some tool to them. You’re a living, breathing being to them." Mustafaro says as he motions to Satine and Obi-wan holding me as my weakened body lies in their arms, "and in the short time they got to know the real you, they started to get attached to you. You’re like a son to them, and deep down I can see that you're quite attached to them as well. Listen to your inner-self, Darth Maul. Then, and only then, will you find who you truly want to be…" Mustafaro says as another radiant light appears next to him out of nowhere. I see Mustafaro looking back at the light as it forms a Zabrak…just like me, only younger and soft--a weakling.

"Hello there, Maul. I am Feral, your brother." The Zabrak says as he walks (or floats?) to me and sits next to me on the bed, smiling as he looks down at it. "Wow, this is one soft bed!" He says, with the cheeriest smile on his face that I've ever seen. Pathetic. "Someone has been really generous in buying this. All we ever got to sleep on were some planks and hay, if we were lucky." The young Zabrak gives an uncomfortable little giggle as he makes the bed bounce a little. His eyes are shut, and a bright grin on his orange-yellow face.

"Yeah, sure. Like Mother would allow her own kin to live like that, even in the Night Brothers side of the village." I say as I roll my eyes at the antics of the weak little Feral. I can see why Savage strangled this weakling--I can't believe I'm related to this kid. He stops bouncing and his eyes open, his smile softening. His antics are getting on my last nerve...

"You don't believe me. Well, I'll show you." Feral say as a flash blinds me for a moment. After the light fades, the floor under me turns to hard wood. Looking around, I see that I am sitting in a different room, much smaller than the room that is, for the time being, my bedroom. The room is damp, and the smell of mold is choking me.

"Welcome home, I could say. This is were Savage and I used to live...before he killed me..." he looks down, his tone sombre before he looks back up, putting on a faux-cheer face. "Have a look around!" Feral smiles as he waves his hand through the room, as I see a younger-looking Feral and Savage walk through the house, looking as if they had been training recently. They're wringing with sweat, and Feral is still panting. Pathetic.

"Man, that was harsh. Did you have to kick me in the gut so hard?" A younger Feral asks our brother as he walks to a small bucket. Taking a ladle, he brings some tepid water to his lips, drinking deeply. He walks to a small hearth and ignites a low fire. Is he actually going to cook something? Pssht.

"Yeah, it had to look convincing, or Brother Viscus would have punished you for being a weakling…again…" Savage smirks as he cuts some odd-looking roots and hands one to his younger sibling, who holds it briefly above the fire before he takes a bite off of it.

"Great. Now, let's hope that he will manage to convince Mother Talzin to let us hunt and gather on their lands as well so we will get better food than what we have now." Feral says as he spits out some of the root into the fire, then uses the back of his hand to rub his mouth.

"Don't get your hopes up, brother. I don't think they will." Savage says as he sits down next to Feral and places a hand on his shoulder, looking into the fire with a stern look across his black and yellow face.

"Well then, we best go gather up some dinner before it gets too dark outside." Feral says as he picks up a basket and puts it over his arm.

"Good idea. I'll go get my spear. Try to turn up the fire a little more so that we can cook once we're back." Savage says as he disappears into another room.

"Got it!" Feral calls back, as I follow him to the place next to the house where wood is stored. Now I can see what the house looks like from the outside. It looks like a small, white hut with a thatch roof. It looks rather small on the outside, but as I follow Feral through the house, I see that it's bigger than one would expect, yet not much compared to what I knew a house to be. There are two separated bedrooms and a little area in which a small kitchen is, as well as a table they eat from and that was it--no couch, no holovid, no refresher. Heh, I though I had nothing. Sheesh.

"Wow, this is quite primitive. How did you wash up, for example?" I think as I look at Feral with a raised brow-line.

"We have a small basin that fills with rain water. That's what we use to wash up before dinner and to drink from. I get sick from it a lot..." Feral says as he shows himself passing the basin while gathering the firewood. 

"Okay. All set!" Savage says as he puts an old-looking spear on his back, just as a alarm goes off, making Savage and Feral run out and gather with all the other males on a big plaza.

"What happened?" Savage asks a Zabrak near him, sounding rather scared for some odd reason.

"Beats me. I just got here as well." The red Zabrak replies as a big speeder comes driving in, parking right before the long line of males. 

"I'm sure you're all wondering why you have been called here." The mother of the Nightsister clan asks as she looks around the males, who are all standing in a line, waiting for whatever lies in store for them. I stand in back, and I can't help but feel shocked as I see Mother Talzin draw a spear from her pocket.

"THIS was found in the woods near our grove. It belongs to a Nightbrother, so one of you men have hunted on our grounds, which you all know is forbidden." Mother Talzin says as she looks at the males firmly, who all looked at each other with a shocked look. They all know what hangs above their heads now. I have heard from Savage that punishments for breaking the Nightsisters' laws were rather severe. I don't know all the laws, but it seems some poor fool stupidly left the evidence of a visit to the Nightsisters' territory.

"I’m sure this must be a big misunderstanding, Mother. Everyone from the tribes know better than to enter Nightsister territory." One of the older-looking males that I know to be Brother Viscus says as he wrings his hands in anxiety. He takes a step towards the Mother of the clan, who looks at him with stone-cold eyes in return. Her gaze does not waver.

"Yet, one of your men has disobeyed the law and laid claim to our prey. " Mother Talzin says as she looks from Brother Viscus to the other males, her eyes resting upon Feral and Savage in the far back, as if she suspects that it had been one of them. Though I, somehow, know that they aren't the culprits--I wasn't even there when it happened--there is nothing I can do even if I actually wanted to do something about this.

"So, who broke the rules and laid claim to our prey?" Mother Talzin says as she looks around to see if any males are showing a single sign of nervousness or wanted to run, but none of them give that sign, until two Nightsisters take a Nightbrother towards The Mother, as well as a female, who looks up at Mother Talzin with so much hatred and disgust as they smack them into the ground at her feet.

"We caught these two at the dock trying to board a ship to leave the planet." One of the two Nightsisters says as she points at the male and female on the ground, which causes the males whisper among themselves in shock.

"This has to be a big misunderstanding--the male we see here before us should be dead." Brother Viscus says as he looks at the male, who seems to be very much alive and well, despite whatever should have caused his "death".

"Well, Viscus, how do you explain this living male being here, then?" Talzin asks as she looks at the leader of the Nightbrothers clan, stone-faced.

"I...I have no idea, ma'am." Brother Viscus answers in all honesty as he wrings his hands, nervously. "However, I can assure you I had nothing to do with it." The man says as he shoots the couple a glare, which the pair answers with a pitiful look in their eyes.

"Listen," The female speaks up with a serious tone to her voice. "Listen all males! I know it might sound odd, but there is a place--a shelter--somewhere in the woods where males and females can live together in harmony; were everyone has RESPECT for one another! This can be yours! Flee while you have the chance! Find Kycia's shelter, and freedom and equality will be--" The female is cut off as a spear pierces her back, silencing her for good.

"Wow!" I gasp as the images of the village turns darker, as if they are suddenly far away as Feral comes closer, looking more clear than the rest of the images in my head.

"Yeah, we were dismissed after this, which meant we could finally go hunt and gather some food. We never dared talking about what the female had said again, yet deep down, I always kept wondering. Would I be able to find the village on my own if I would flee? Would I be strong enough to reach it? Would they all, indeed, be as kind as those two claimed?" Feral says as he looks at the vague images that now show him and Savage as they hunt.

"So your very existence has always seemed like a far-away memory--almost like a fading dream, and the same went for Savage." Feral says as he looks to the image of Savage as he was hunting. He looks very serious, though deep down, I saw the hurt in his eyes; the longing for a life he would never see until later on--after he had sworn his allegiance to me.

"If you so sincerely want to go on with the life you've had until now, then please let our brother choose for himself. If not for me, then do it for him. I know you care for him--no matter how much you protest." Feral says, pleading, before the images and the young Zabrak boy disappears, making me cough loudly as I sit upright in my bed. Savage sits in a chair next to my bed and sleeps soundly, while Satine and Obi-wan have probably gone to bed themselves. It seems to be quite dark out--it's probably very late.

"Now is my chance to escape. All I have to do is wake up my apprentice, then we can leave this hug-and-tickle-filled hell." I think as I pull my lightsaber to myself. It slips to me instantly--free from the place in which Kenobi held it hostage. I smile as I now get up and steady myself, smirking as I notice my metal legs are able to carry my weight as I walk to Savage and carefully shake him awake. It seems I must have touched the medallion around his neck, for it suddenly begins glowing, and before I know what's happening, Mother Talzin stands before me.

"Maul, my son." She says with a solemn voice as she looks at me, shaking her head in sadness. "Do you truly want to leave the Jedi and the Duchess who took you in as their own kin?"She asks as she looks at me with disappointment plain on her face, as though she had really expected that I would have accepted this weak life…uuurgh, the very idea!  
"Yes, and you know why, mother. This is no life for a Sith Lord like myself. You can't expect me to let the man who cut me in half and left me for dead on Lotho Minor for all those years ago to care for me all of a sudden." I huff as I look to the side, a little offended since I half-expected Mother Talzin to know me better than that--even though she didn't raise me.

"I didn't know you survived. Had I known that, I would have came for you--to put you out of your misery, at the very least." A voice says from behind me. Obi-wan's slipped into the room while I had been busy talking to Mother Talzin, the sneaky coward. He holds a tray of food in his hands, looking at me sadly.

"Yeah sure. We both know how angry and unbalanced you were after I gutted your Master like a carp in front of you. You would've done everything in your power to kill me, Kenobi. Don't play holy on me." I snap while rolling my eyes at him.

"If it would break the chains that bound you to Sidious and his cruelty." Obi-wan says as he looks at me with so much pity. I am taken aback--I hadn't anticipated that answer.

"Well, had you been able to kill someone who had been bisected at the waist and driven mad from rage and hatred. I was helpless at that point. I thought it went against your "code" to kill a "helpless" opponent, Jedi." I scoff. That mindless, counter-productive code of theirs will get them all killed one day.

"I don't know. Since I have no idea how you were back then." Obi-wan says, seemingly ignoring the latter part of my statement, as he looks at me with that cursed pity again. I don't need his pity. I don't need anyone's pity.

"If you really want to know, I can show you." Mother Talzin says as she looks at the former Jedi Master, with a calm expression to match her cool tone.

~Obi-wan 's POV~

"If you really want to know, I can show you." Mother Talzin says as she looks at me with a baleful eye.

"Well, yes. I would like to know. Perhaps then, I can understand him better." I say as I look at Maul, who seems surprised. Poor fellow. He probably doesn't why I kept trying to see behind his mask; to see the hurt, scared child within. Do I have to keep trying to reach that Maul? I know Qui-gon would have done the same if it had been me who had fallen on Naboo. Mother Talzin chants a spell, after she finishes her incantation, I am surrounded of light and witness how Savage retrieved his brother from Lotho Minor. By the stars! He looks like something from a nightmare--ghoulish. His horns are over-grown, and it seems that he has constructed--what are those? Spider-legs? In any event, the spider-legs buckle under his weight, causing him to stagger and scuttle as he moved and the way he spoke to Savage. Bless the Force, if ever I heard a broken man, it was then. The whole time that he spoke, it was a gibbering mess...oh dear. I don't know what to say..."Always remember that I am hunter. Always remember that I am nothing." Is that what Sidious told him? That he is nothing? How long did he have to hear that? No wonder he is the person that he is. If we had found him instead...if Master Yoda had found him instead, what person would he be?

"Yet perhaps that isn't the case at all. Look at him closely, Obi-wan. He is still scarred. A scar one cannot see; a scar on the inside. He tries to hide it--the way of the Sith. To show weakness--to show pain--is to die." A voice, the voice of my former Master says, which makes me look up at Maul, my eyes wide. As our eyes meet, I see that he is, indeed, scarred--not just that, but a thick air of terror fills his fiery blood-red and yellow eyes. What does he fear? I must uncover the source of his fear and help him to heal. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering. I cannot let him suffer. It is not the Jedi way.

"Obi-wan, I know that you'll know what to do. Listen to your heart my former Padawan. You'll find all the answers you seek within." My Master's voice says, lilting.

"Maul, I know it might sound strange coming from me, but I... I'm sorry for the pain I've caused you. At that moment, I didn't know what had happened to you, and had I known I had tried to reason with you earlier on. The way of the Jedi should be to always seek peace." I say as I look at Maul. As expected, he simply huffs, crosses his arms, and looks away.

"Yeah, sure." He huffs as he looks to the side,offended. Yet, in his eyes I can see that he's clearly shocked to hear this.

"It's true. If I had known--and after I cooled off, I admit I was too angry. I acted rashly and broke one of the Order's laws--it was forbidden to cut you in half like that. And I really have grown to like you as I've gotten to know you--never thought I would say that." I say as I take a step towards Maul, who was looks at me, shocked as I manage to reach his side and gently place a hand on his shoulder. His eyes meet mine with a sharp, bitter glare.

"You had just killed me. Compassion Is for the weak, and I am not weak." Maul says as he growls at me.

"You're not weak. I know that, and compassion isn't for the weak. It takes far more strength to act with compassion than cruelty, and you know--deep down--how strong our compassion for you and Savage is." I say as I draw closer. I know I risk a punch to the gut--or worse--but I'm going in for a hug.

"Screw you and your bloody compassion, I'm out of here!" Maul says as he backs away from me, dodging my open arms as he takes his lightsaber from the place we had stashed it before heading to the door. However, it seems that he has failed to notice that Satine has come in, as well, and is standing in the doorway--her arms outstretched, touching either end of the frame, effectively blocking his exit.

"Send my apprentice to the dock, in fifteen minutes straight we're leaving this putrid, fetid hole--" Maul starts, but stops when he bumps into Satine, who smiles and wraps her arms around Maul, rocking him as she places a soft kiss on his cheek.

"Maul, please stay with us. We all care about you. You're our son. You have been since the moment you came here. Please..." The Duchess whispers in his ear as she strokes Maul over his back, which made Maul's chest heavy for some reason, while Satine crouches down and pulls him into a hug.

"Let me go--let me go! You're choking me, woman!" Maul struggles, yet despite his struggling Satine manages to pull him into her lap and cuddle him, which makes him stop fighting. It seems that his body isn't willing to fight love anymore. Good. Perhaps we can begin the healing process, now.

"This is family. This is love. This is your home. We're here for you, dear. We always will be, whatever happens. We will always love you." Satine whispers as she rocks Maul's shaking form. Smiling, I now go to them and join her, hugging him.

"Yes, you'll always be loved. Always, because even if you were to die, we would never forget you. In our hearts and memories, you would always live on." I add as I feel tears well up in my eyes. I feel Maul's mind flashes through all the horrible moments that he has been through; all that is now at an end. He is with us. He has a home, now. A family. Love.

"Please, dear. Please, let's end this. Sign the adoption papers. Let us help you out of this misery. We want to help you." Satine whispers, tears in her eyes as well. It is quite likely that she feels how bad his condition is--that he still does not understand that we want to free him of the miserable state in which he had been living for so long--to free him from his prison.

"No! No! Let me go!" Maul groans, trying to break free from Satine's loving arms, while I look up at Savage, who has woken up due to the commotion in the room. He kneels down with us and takes the adoption papers over to her, asking her to sign the papers without saying a word.

"Brother, I you want to go on with your mission, go right ahead, but I'm staying with Satine and Obi-wan. I'm not giving up the life I have build up here." Savage says with a stern look at Maul, who looks at him, baffled--unable to believe that his apprentice has just turned against him.

"Why…?" Maul says, only a small amount above a whimper, making Savage smile sheepishly, before he wraps his arm around Satine and Obi-wan, smiling while hugging them both.

"I have really started to appreciate the life here in the palace. I am head guard. I get appreciated, despite being a male. No more life-threatening situations. No more hunger. No more cold or unbearable heat. It's amazing." Savage says, starry-eyed, certainly meaning what he said.

"Weakling…" Maul grumbles as he looks to the side with an offended look.

"How is feeling loved at long last weak, Maul? I mean, COME ON! I have lived my whole life in constant fear of getting killed or my brother, Feral, getting killed! I was nothing but a bloody SLAVE! Now, I finally have a chance to have a normal life in a normal family! I am NOT giving that up now, Maul! I'll rather die than to have to endure the Sith life one more day, and if you were wise, you would open your eyes and see how much these two people love and care about you! You had done the same!" Savage snaps angrily at Maul, who looks at his brother with widened eyes. He hadn't realized that slavery had put him through that much agony and pain.

"Fine, stay for all I care, but I'm out of here." Maul says, breaking the long silence that had fallen after Savage's outburst. The young Zabrak gets up and rubs his eyes.

"SOMETIMES I WISH IT HAD BEEN FERAL WHO WAS HERE WITH ME INSTEAD OF YOU! HE WOULD HAVE BEEN GRATEFUL FOR THE LOVE HE WOULD RECEIVE HERE!!" Savage calls after Maul, tears in his eyes as Maul ignores his command and runs as fast as he can, without looking back. Away from Mandalore, away from us.

"He'll come back in time, Savage. You'll see. He just needs time to realize what he turned away from." I assure Savage as I wrap my arms around the giant Zabrak male with a smile on my face as Satine gives him a soft kiss on his cheek.

"I hope so. Maybe I was a bit hard on him," Savage says as he presses himself against my chest, tears rolling down his cheek. "I mean…I…I do wish Feral was here with me, but I want Maul to be here, too. He is my family as much as Feral was…" Savage sobs.

"I know dear, and he knows that as well. I'm sure he understands that you were just upset about him giving up a life of warmth and happiness like that." Satine assures Savage with a smile on her face.

"Yeah, you had to stand your ground this time or you would have been his Sith Apprentice again. I think you did the right thing and I'm sure, deep down, Maul knows that, too." I say as Satine gets up and makes Maul's bed, putting everything that's standing back the way it used to be when Maul was still around. Before we head out, I hold Savage on my arm. He's still sobbing on my shoulder and before I close the door to Maul's room, I looked back into it once more, remembering his first tickle fight and the many nights we had him cuddled in our arms as we read him stories. I remember praying with everything inside me for the Force to guide me in my desire to make him understand that his new family is here and waiting for him; waiting for their second son to return.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

And with that I end the chapter, sorry writing this chapter was a bit difficult for me, because I really had to think how I wanted to the story to go on, without maul getting to hard to believe...

A/N

Just to clarify; mauls illness was caused by the inner fight he was fighting. I have heard of cases like this before and i hope i did it right...

Darth mustafaro will most likely keep on appearing even after maul left mandalore, since he is a freaking awsome sith... and wants maul to realize what he is giving up on..

I thought the whole scene with feral was a good way to make maul realize what his fate had been if he hadn't been taken by sidious and maybe even made him understand a little why savage chose to stay...

Savage and maul already had a very close relationship during the episode "the lawless" which marks the start of my story... so thats why savage was seemingly hurt when maul chose to leave...

Well that was all for now, i hope you enjoyed the story so far and don't forget to leave a

REVIEW

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that I end the chapter, sorry writing this chapter was a bit difficult for me, because I really had to think how I wanted to the story to go on, without maul getting to hard to believe... 
> 
> A/N 
> 
> Just to clarify; mauls illness was caused by the inner fight he was fighting. I have heard of cases like this before and i hope i did it right... 
> 
> Darth mustafaro will most likely keep on appearing even after maul left mandalore, since he is a freaking awsome sith... and wants maul to realize what he is giving up on..
> 
> I thought the whole scene with feral was a good way to make maul realize what his fate had been if he hadn't been taken by sidious and maybe even made him understand a little why savage chose to stay... 
> 
> Savage and maul already had a very close relationship during the episode "the lawless" which marks the start of my story... so thats why savage was seemingly hurt when maul chose to leave... 
> 
> Well that was all for now, i hope you enjoyed the story so far and don't forget to leave a 
> 
> REVIEW


	5. chapter 5: the last son of dathomir part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the upcoming three chapters all belong in the dark horse comic "darth maul son of dathomir" ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED FOR THEM

Maul's POV 

After i managed to get away from mandalore at long last, i went back to my syndacite on zannbar, were i knew my man had a base of operations. 

"Hey guys, guess who's back..." i smirked as i came into the main room with a smirk on my face. But all i was met with were sore face's... no one seemed happy i managed to escape the clutches of kenobi and satine to return to them...

"What are you doing here? Traitor?" Bo katan asked as she looked at me fiercely, stepping in front of some off her death watch followers as she pointed her weapon on my hearth, soon followed by black sun and the pykes followers...

"What does it seem like i'm doing? I"m taking back what is rightfully mine..." i smirked as i turned on the black saber from my belt and pointed it at her. 

"Your not our leader anymore... you betrayed death watch by letting your brother capture most of us! Now for the last time...Leave" bo katan said fiercely as she put a finger on the trigger with a treathening voice, meaning she was gonna shoot if i didn't acted fast. 

" my traitorous brother was the one that arrested you in fact... i was a prisoner all this time and had no chance to return without help" i said with a smirk on my face as i made the weapon fly towards me. "So i am just as match as a traitor as you then, wouldn't you say..." 

"Your not even mandalorian... why should we trust you..." bo spat at me as she got another weapon from her belt, which i made hurl towards me just as easily as the last one, destroying it with my force powers. 

"Because we had a deal remember? Your people's freedom... for revenge against kenobi and satine..." i said with a smirk, but while i said this i suddenly fell a strange sting in my hearth, do i had no idea why... i hated the life i had given up on... why did it stung me i wanted to continue plotting revenge against those two and my weakling brother.

"So... your suddenly willing to try and take down that so called brother of yours that arrested most of our man?" I heard bo katan ask in the distance, while i fell a strange disturbance in the force... like a million starships were ready to strike us... 

"Yes, so now man your posts! Were under attack!" I called at the man, who immidiatly all scrambled to get to their posts as a rain off blaster bolds started to strike the ground. 

"I will trust you one last time don't blow it!" Bo called as she threw me a blaster, which i took over with a grin on my face, as we started to blow up the many droids that were coming for us. 

"Action at last" i thought as i blasted some droids close to me, the let out a yell as i igniged my dark saber and threw myself at the droids, liking the up close tactic more then shooting from afar. 

"Come on my warriors! This is the war you have all been waiting for! VICTORY ORE DEATH!" I exclaimed as i slashed threw more droids, my eyes focused on general grievous, who just then exited his ship. 

" VICTORY ORE DEATH! VICTORY ORE DEATH!" Came the reply of my fellow mandelorian warriors as the raised their weapons in the air, before the fight continued, shocked by our detirmination the droids were even easier to knock out, which made me able to reach grievous, locking blades with the droid, as he let out a cackling launch. 

"Why maul, i thought you were with your new "parents" on mandalore" grievous taunted me as we clashed our second blades. 

"Guess again mechaniqual trash! I'm not the sorry house boy type... " i smirked as i slashed off one off his mecheniqual arms and catched that saber in my hand. 

"you will be a sorry boy once i'm threw with you..." grievous said with a smirk on his face as we squared off threw the goas off the battle.... 

"I am more then a match for you" I said as I clashed blades with grievous once again, smirking as I did so. 

"your efforts are useless your army is skilled but my forces are unending" Grievous smirked as we kept up fighting. "look around, your mandalorians have been crushed" he smirked as he hurled me away from him, which made me look up, seeing his army was the only thing left that was standing…

"only my droids remain now…your battle is already lost…" grievous taunted, which made me look around with a shocked look, seeing that indeed only his droids were still standing…

"were not finished yet, my gauntlet fighters have yet to enter the fight" I said with a growl, before I jumped onto one of my ships, were I was greated by one of my man named cast. 

"lord maul, I was afraid we'd lost you…" the mandelorian said as I ran inside, after which the hatch closed. 

"take us away from here kast, I can no longer stomach the sight of it…" I said, after which kast did as told, flying away from zanbar on top speed… and hopefully onto the next phase of our plan. 

Normal POV 

meanwhile on zanbar, general grievous looked around with a pleased look on his face as he contacted count dooku. 

"I have done as you asked, I have made maul bleed, he and his army are now on the run" the robotic general said after count dooko's hologram appeared before him. 

"what were his losses" count dooku asked with a grin on his face. 

"extensive, but in truth I had all but exhausted my own forced as well…" grievous said. 

"acceptable loses general, you have done well, maul will believe that we are attempting to destroy his power base and disrubt his syndicate, he must not learn our true intentions…" dooku said with a grin, which made grievous look at him confused for a moment, before something dawned on him, the real reason they had to try and make maul bleed…. Mother talzin. 

"the witch talzin?' he asked with a not understanding look, not getting why talzin would give up her hiding spot for a mere nightbrother like maul. 

"yes, my master feels these attacks will draw her out in the open" count dooku said with a stern face. 

"why would she risk herself so? What value does maul hold for her?" the general asked with a shocked look. 

"all in good times general…." dooku replied with a smirk on his face. "you will see all in good time…" 

Mauls POV 

"mother…. Mother I implore you… I seek your guidance…" I whispered as I sat in the middle off my room in kasts ship. A few hours after we had flied away from zanbar. Soon after this a green smoke errupted from my body, making me groan a little, since making talzin appear stung me. 

"do not fight me my child, become my vessel" mother talzins voice said as she took form before me. "speak to me my beloved son" she said as she appeared before me, smiling at me kindly as she did so. 

"mother, the power I ammased has lured your enemy sidious out now I am free once more… grievous and his droid army have driven us from zanbar… we are wounded… but alive…" I smiled at my biological mother. 

"yes my son, even do it surprised me you left mandalore and your brother behind… I understand you might need time to understand your true emotions around the jedi knight and the dutches of mandalore…" mother talzin smiled as she moved a hand towards me with a loving smile on her face. 

"so, what is your guidance now mother?" I asked, rolling my eyes at her for thinking I might return to the jedi and dutches someday… do a part of me was screaming to go back to their love and protection after what had happened on zanbar… 

"sidious will expect you to retreath to my protection, we will not do this… " mother talzin said as she smiled "lead your fleed to ord mantel instead, your allies, black sun have a stronghold there…" mother talzin said. "gather your strenght and prepare yourself, our next move will be critical…" 

"will you meet me there mother?" I asked with a sad look as mother talzin started to dissapear. 

"I will not" mother talzins voice replied calmly. "however aid from dathomir shall soon be yours, our victory will be TOTAL and COMPLETE" talzin said, before she totally dissapeared, soon after which kast came in to tell me we had reached ord mantel. 

"I'm coming…" I said as I cleared away my stuff, as I did so I saw from the corner of my eye something fell out of my bag and as I looked at it closely I saw to my greath shock that it was the storybook of darth mustafaro as well as a note 

"as a rememberance that you will always be welcome back with us, even do you don't want us now… your loved and we will wait for you to come back to us…. Love Satine, obi wan and savage the note read, which made me stare from the booklet to the note with a shocked look, not understanding how they had managed to put the book and note in there before he had headed off… but something inside me fell warm of the thought of it. 

"kenobi must have put them in there, knowing I might wanne leave someday…. To keep reminding me of the weak pafatic love they fell for me…" I thought as I squeezed the note to a dot in my hand and threw it in the corner of the room, before I headed out of the room, putting the booklet in my bookshelve as I did so. 

"a battle is coming my brothers, a battle between the sith and that which they feared the most US" I smiled as I headed out before my man into the castle of ord mantale with my remaining mandalorians as well as the leaders of the pykes and black sun. 

"your inspire us all lord maul" the black sun leader said. "but do you really intent to fight count dooku and his separtist legion?" the fat green alien asked with a shocked look on his face, since he was most likely thinking we wouldn't be able to defeat them all if it came to a all out fight. 

"their forces are mindless droids zitton moy. Take out their leadership and they all fall down" I said with crossed arms as I looked at the alien sternly "these clone wars have vastely overextended dooku and general grievous,their more vonurable than they realize" 

"and they remain unaware of our true numbers" pykes leader fife put in the middle, seemingly agreeing with my plan. 

"precicely fife, we can attack them directly, when dooku and grievous arrive we'll be waiting to trap them in their own net" I said with a balted fist to put power by my words. 

"and your not worried your brother and his new family will try and interfiere to try and get you back?" Zitton moy asked with a stern look, which made me turn and look at him angrily. 

"Mandalore won't interfere with our struggle, since that would put mandalore in the war... which is against everything duches satine believes in..." i said with a smirk on my face, since the one good thing that whole mascarade with kenobi and the duches had brought forth was that I now knew that mandalore wouldn't interfiere with republic affairs, because this would put their neutral position in danger, something I knew satine wouldn't risk. 

"do my brother might wanne interfiere… try and bring me back ho…. Wait what was I going to think?" I thought as I shook my head wildly when I caught myself thinking about mandalore as my home… I had no home except for dathomir… and even do I wasn't raised there… I was hoping that… once sidious was death and I could repay my depths to death watch, the pykes and black sun I could go there and maybe start living with mother talzin for a while… not forever… just for a little while… to be able to talk to her and ask her a few things about…. Before I was taken… just because I was curious to know if what my brother said was true… yeah… not that I care…. Just curiousity. 

"you keep telling yourself that maul… bu you and I both know that it is because you wanne know what your life was like before sidious took you" The voice of darth mustafaro said as I walked to my command center with my army. 

"go away mustafaro… I'm not interested in talking to you right now! I have to focus on my work…" I thought at the old man as I firmly shook my head to shake of his voice. 

"lord maul, are you alright?" I heard fife ask in the background, as one of my mandalorians placed a worried hand on my shoulder. 

"I'm fine fife… I was just…. Lost in thoughts for a moment… carry on…" I said as I got the map of the castle and it surroundings out and started to prepare everything for my big plan… mother talzins big plan… and hopefully it would work… and soon I could finally greet her in person for the first time in ages… 

Normal POV 

"our spies report mandalorian spaceships ammassing on ord mantel, which only confirms that black sun is in league with mauls syndacite" general grievous said to count dooku, while he sat on his big chair in the main controlroom of the ship they were in. 

" and it is there, that he gathers his army general" the count replied as he walked into the main control room as well. "we cannot strike until we have confirmation that Talzin is there with him'" dooku said as he crossed his arms, while general grievous turned his chair to face the count. 

"why is this witch so important my lord? She has no army… no power compared to ours" the droid general said as he looked at his master with a surprised look, not getting why his master was so interested in a mere dathomir witch, who had no army ore power compared to the big army they had gathered… 

"talzin is an older and fauler creature then you can guess general, her powers run deep" dooku said with a stern look on the general. "her teachings… her magic…we're sought out by my master… they were once allies, now her meddling could compromise all off our designs… she must be destroyed…" dooku said firmly, putting extra power in the word "destroyed" since failing was not a option here… they had to destroy talzin… ore things could end very bad for them… sidious would see to that…. Which was something dooku knew and feared… which was why failing was not a option now…. Not now his life depended on it… 

"sir reconnaissance droids near dathomir have report a single transport shuttle left the planet moments ago…" a droid said as he entered the room. 

"were they able to scan the ship" general grievous asked as he got up and faced the droid. 

"unable to confirm, also unable to confirm it's exact trajectory but ord mantale is a possibility" the droid replied. 

"the witch may be attempting to reach maul even as we speak " count dooku said as he looked from the droid to the general "input coordinates to ord mantel and intruct the fleet to follow us into hyperspace" count dooku intructed, which made the droid immidiatly go and do as he was being told. "when we arrive you will command the bombardment from orbit general" dooku instructed. "you will leave the witch talzin… to me…" dooku said with a grin on his face… already looking out too the kill that would make his masters plan for galaxy wide dominance come even closer… soon nothing would stand in their way… and they would rule the galaxy as master and apprentice… 

Maul's POV

"Their attack will begin by air, ground forces will only be commited after they believe the battle is won" I said a moment later after I had prepared everything for the meeting, ignoring mustafor's words about my family probably waiting for me back on mandalore… wondering how I was doing…. Since I wasn't interested In that… all I was interested in now was revenge against sidious… which was why I had to concentrate now. 

"we will lead them into the chokepoints, here! Use their numbers against them" I instructed as I pointed out the chokepoints on the map. "once we draw them in, the mandalorians will lead the pykes and black suns merchandizes into a full scale counterattack, what we lack in skill we make up with superior abillity and mastery over the terrain" 

"Lord maul, we have a incoming transport from dathomir" one of my man said as he entered the room, which made me smile… that would be the backup mother talzin promised me. 

"saxon, with me… kast, bring the others up to speed to the rest of my plan…" I instructed before I walked to the dock with saxon, were just then a small ship landed, before the hatch opened and many dathomirian nightbrothers came out, which made me instandly think of savage for some reason… do I had no idea why… he had chosen his path… I had chosen mine… and that was the end of it… 

"lord maul, I am brother viscus… mother talzin send us to aid you…" the nightbrother walking in the front said as he walked to me. 

"night brothers, pure warriors… mother has chosen well…" I smirked as the nightbrothers gathered around me and bowed to me in respect, which fell a little odd to me, since if it hadn’t be for sidious… I had been one of them… 

"yet you aren't… and now their here… you could flee with them… take them to mandalore… and give them a propper home and care… look at them… their flesh and bones under those rags… how can you look at them and not feel guilty for leaving satine and obi wan behind…" the voice of mustafaro said in my head, which I shook off by raising my head in the air and taking a deep breath as I fell the droids nearing. 

"I sense… the droids are coming…" I said calmly after which I soon saw that a fleed of starships indeed arrived into sign a moment later, soon after which things errupted into flames all around us while my mandelorians fled to their positions to defend us. 

"They are upon us! Take your positions!" I yelled at my man, whom immidiatly went to do as told, not questioning my leadership. "brother viscus, there is no time for a briefing. Take your nightbrother to my command center and wait for my word" I instructed the yellow zabrak next to me, who nodded and immdiatly went to do as told. 

"saxon, you know what to do… prepare for their ground assault. Hold them at bay until we're in position" I told saxon before I ran off. 

"you heard him! Let's scrap some droids! VICTORY ORE DEATH!" I heard saxon yell at his fellow mandalorian warriors, who all yelled "victory ore death in return, before they went to their positions as I went to my ship and went to get into position as well. 

Normal POV 

Meanwhile on the ship of general grievous. 

"infantry deployed sir" a droid said as he rolled over to the droid general whom was standing by a map of ord mantale. 

"Good tey-zuka, we have them on the run" grievous replied with a smirk on his face. "once our droids take control over the city mauls forces will be like insects under our heels" general grievous launched as he landed his ship, after which count dooku and more droids excited the ship. 

"find maul and the witch talzin, no other target matters, level the city until their our found" dooku instructed the droids, who immdiatly after that left the ship to do as told.,   
�'all gunnery decks are reloaded and re-charged sir, the fleet is ready to resume bombartment on your order sir" The droid said back on grievous ship, who was looking at the map with a stern look, feeling like something was off… 

"not yet…something isn't right…" general grievous said as he looked from the map to the droid with a stern look. "we know maul has several mandalorian warships at his disposel, but we've seen no aerial support protecting the city,. So were are they?" 

"I calculate these warships were destroyed before they could take off…." The droid replied, but he was proven wrong as the sounds of explosions were suddenly heard. 

"No, they weren't destroyed, they were luring us into a trap!" General grievous said as he grabbed on to a desk for support as a allarm went off. 

"focus on the command ship while the fleets cannons are still aimed at the planet" maul told his man as he stood in the commad ship of the mandalorian fleet. "once we capture grievous, the droid armies will fall along with him… " maul said as he stood behind kast with his arms folded over one another as he silentlty gazed upon the battle going on before him. 

Meanwhile on the ground, count dooku reached a main room of the castle, were he crouched down and looked at the floor, using his force abillities he could sense that maul had been here, but he didn't fell talzin nearby… which meant she was either not here ore she hadn't been in this room with her son. 

"maul was here…" count dooku stated to his droids, but stopped when his droids were suddenly stunned, after which a pack of nightbrothers appeared in the doorway. 

"welcome count, mother talzin sends her regards… we have come to deal with you in her place…" the leader of the group said as all nightbrothers took their weapons in hand and swung them dangerously at the sith lord. 

"you will find that task beyond your abillity nightbrothers…" dooku replied with a sinister smile on his face as he ignited his own crimson lightsaber, before the battle started. 

Back with the mandalorian army most of the man had taken cover as the droids were advancing over the palace grounds, shooting at everything that moved. 

"This is not a counterattack, it's a slaughter!" ziton moy said as he and two others hid behind a big rock and tried to shoot at whatever droids came close by. "he is right" fife said as the alien held it's weapon ready to attack. 

"I don't know what lord mauls big plan isç but it's not working…" zitton moy said, blasting two droids at once afterwards. "maybe he has grown weak after all that time on mandalore after all…" fife commanded as he did the same. 

"reign it in soldier. We don't question the strategy ore mock lord maul, we ensure it's succes" kast said with a firmly. "we just have to last long enough to…" he started but stopped as a droid smashed the rock they were hiding behind, and grabbed fife from behind as it did so. 

"ah! Help me!" The alien screamed as the droid tried to run off with him, at with zitton moy firmly blasted at the robot to try and take it down so his ally would be free…. 

in space 

a heated battle was going on. Many ships were already damaged but the ship carrying maul was still going, attacking and counterattacking as it tried to get closer to the ship containing general grievous. 

"Closer! Bring us closer to the command ship!" Maul commanded as he focused his eyes on the big main ship i knew grievous was in. 

"There!" I said as i pointed out grievous ship. "As soon were under their firing range...attach to their ship" maul ordered, as kast movef the ship flowlessly under the ship were the fireblasts couldn't hit anymore, before kast boarder the ship. 

"Prepare a boarding party!" Maul yelled as he went up to the hatch, several of his man followed him and prepared to board, as soon as kast told him that they were attached to the ship maul used his lightsaber to cut into the ship. 

"We're going to take the fight right to grievous" maul told his man as he managed to make a hole in the ship, which allowed his man to board grievous's ship. 

Back on the ground

dooku was still facing off against the nightbrothers and he was holding his own quite wel, but so was the zabrak team... which made that dooku had to rely on force lightning to keep the zabrak males at a distance. But when he was disreacted by eclectrocuting a few zabrak males he didn't saw brother viscus had dodged the lightning and closed in on him fast with his weapon drawn. 

"Now you'll die!" The yellow zabrak commanded as he leaped up above the count with his weapon above him... ready to strike dooku down. 

In space 

"They have boarded our ship, i'm unable to..." the bot next to general grievous started, but stopped as a door flung open and many bots were thrown to all sides. 

"One warning, disconect the droids command signal, ore die" maul said as he walked into the room, while the bot next to grievous said "uh ooh" before he was flung to the side as maul grabbed grievous by his arms while holding the dark saber against his troath. "Ore do both, it matters not to me" maul grinned as he looked at grievous with a devious look in his eyes. 

On the ground

"what do we do with them…" one of the droids asked as they had all surrounded maul's ground squad, who all had their arms in the air as a gesture of surrender. "our orders are to take no prisoners" another droid replied, after which all droids pointed their guns at the group. 

"you fought hard man, it's been a honor…" kast said as he looked at his man, knowing this was the end for them. But just as the droids wanted to shoot the signal went death, making them hang their heads in defeat. 

"their command signal just went death, tear them appart" kast said, before he and all his man tore the robots to peaces. 

Nightbrothers vs dooku

"you are formiddable count…this will be a victory well earned" brother viscus said as he leaped over count dooku. 

"know this brother viscus" count dooku said as he dodged the attack of the nightbrother with ease. "I will destroy you. Then maul and finally talzin… " count dooku said as he dodged the attack with ease, making brother viscus smacked on the ground, unable to get up as count dooku pointed his lightsaber at the zabraks troath. "your people will be but a memory" the count said as he raised his lightsaber in the air to end the zabraks life once and for all… but as he wanted to do so, suddenly mauls army appeared behind him and pointed their weapons at him as kast exclaimed; "that's far enough DOOKU!" 

"it seems you have been defeated dooku" kast said as he went up to the count and cuffed his hands behind his back before he was taken to a cell. 

"it seems that for someone who was a house boy until recently…. Maul hasn't learned off the ways of the sith to well…" count dooku said as he was let away. "this was a suprising defeat indeed…" 

"wait…. Maul was in a family until recently?" brother viscus asked as he was helped back on his feet by two mandalorians, after which he rubbed the blood from his face. 

"yes, the former duches thought that threw adoption lord maul would weaken, but he returned to us… and now were here" kast replied, before he took dooku along to lock him up, letter brother viscus behind who looked after him with a shocked look. 

Maul's POV 

"It is done mother…" I said as I summoned mother talzin into the main control room of grievous's ship. "dooku and grievous have been captured, we now control their forces" 

"you have done well my son" mother said as she placed a hand under my cheeck and looked at me with a loving glace. "soon sidious will follow, and together we will have our revenge" mother said, which made me smile at her, since that was all I wanted right now, revenge on sidious for his betrayal… 

"and after that…what will you do once we have had our revenge on sidious… my son?" mother talzin asked with a concern look. 

"then there is one more target I have… obi wan kenobi… the one that split me in half, robbed me of my destiny and finally…. Turned my own brother against me…" I growled, remembering the moment savage put his name beneat the adoptive papers and proudly stated that he resigned from the sith order because he wanted to stay in a weak do good family…. Uuuurg the nerve of that guy… 

"savage opress chose what he wanted most.... He wanted love and care... the things tradition denied him when he was a child.. " talzin said as she looked at me sadly, even do she had been the one that put in that rule in the first place... so techiquely speaking it had been her own fault she hadn't been able to give savage the love and care he so longed for and prevent him from turning on me... the asshole... 

"Yet he will at least he out of harms way once it is time to take down sidious... aaarg what am i thinking! He should be here risking his ass for me instead of being mister lazy bones head of the assguards..." i thought firmly, a sting of betray stinging me every time i thought about my brother... while another voice in my head protested and defended my brother.... saying he had the right to choose for love... and that i could have done thesame.... like i wanne be a lazy house boy...

"Ready ore not i'm gonna find yaaaa" the voice of obi wan called in my head, as i saw him scanning around the room for me, looking for my hiding place since it had been bath time. 

"Good night maul, sweet dreams..." satine's whispering voice said next as i could feel her hands softly smooth my blanket around my body... making sure i was loved and protected before she would head to beth herself. 

"You were safe and wanted as well... savage chose to stay.. you chose to go... and now we are here... " talzin said as she made her soft ghost hand smooth the skin of my cheeck which made me look up at her beaming. "We can't change the things we have done... so now we have to move on..." 

"You are wise as ever mother..." i smiled at her. 

"Yet i want to ask something of you..." talzin said as she looked at the roof with a pondering look. 

"What is it mother..." i asked without thinking... i would do anything for mother talzin since, even do i won't admit out loud... i care for her deeply. 

"If anything were to happen to me... and my return to the visical world will be cut off permanently... i want you to promise me... you WIL return to the jedi and the dutches..." mother talzin asked me as she looked at me sadly, which made my eyes widen in shock at the very idea... 

"If anything happens... i'll try and go back... but i can't promise it will be forever... i just can't stand a normal calm life..." i said firmly, which made talzin smile. 

"Love works in mysterious ways... my son... the jedi and the dutches have already opened your hearth to it... in time you WIL understand... that their life won't be as dull as you think" mother talzin said,before she dissapeared, making me sight and meditate a little more on the past few weeks i have spend with satine and kenobi… flashed of the life I had left behind shot threw me head as well as the happy face of my brother, holding on to satine and obi wan as he took responsibility for his deeds as a sith under me. 

"have I really been a fool for turning my back on that life… " I thought as I heard satine's voice in my head again "This is family... this is love...this is... your home.. Were here for you dear… we always will… whatever happens… we will always love you… " which caused a faint sting in my hearth for the first time in my life…. And as I rubbed my hand over my cheeck…. I fell tears make my hands wet for the first time as well….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that said I end the chapter! I hope it was your liking. 
> 
> A/N ��most off this part of the story is taken from the dark horse comic "son of dathomir" so ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED TO THEM! I only owe the last scene! 
> 
> I wanted to let the events of "son of dathomir" happen anyway, because I thought it was a perfect comic and I don't think maul will accept a calm family life until he realizes how match the first few chapters have affected him… since we all know how stubborn maul can be 
> 
> I think mother talzin would be a bit surprised that maul would return to his old life, but not too match because she might already know how stubborn the zabrak can be… nor do I think she would try and force him to go back 
> 
> Keep the promise maul made to talzin in mind! It's going to play a role somewhere in the next chapter. 
> 
> That was all for now, I hope you enjoyed reading this as match as I enjoyed writing it
> 
> PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW!!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: ALL OF THIS BELONGS TO THE DARK HORSE COMIC SON OF DATHOMIR! ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED FOR THEM!

Obi wan's POV 

the next day a ship arrived from corrosant and as i went to greet them i saw that it were mace windu, master yoda and my former padawan anikan akywalked, and none of them looked to happy. 

"What do i owe the pleasure for..." i asked as i went up to them, ignoring their sour faces as i did so, since I had a pretty good feeling what their visit was for… 

"Kenobi... why didn't you told us maul is alive?" Mace windu asked as he looked at me firmly, ignoring my command completely. 

"Because he was here on mandalore with satine and me the past couple of weeks, and we thought he would like to stay forever so we didn't told anyone" i simply explained with a small nod to me fieancè satine, who nodded as well. 

"Too dangerous... maul was... telling us... you should have... obi wan" yoda said as he looked at me with the same firm look he had given me when I had told him I was going to take anikan as my apprentice whether he liked it ore not. 

"maybe... but we wanted to give him a chance to redeem himself... on my last mission to dathomir i found out something about maul master yoda... he was forced into the ways of the sith" i said with a stern look on the ground master, who scratched his chin with his alien like fingers as i spoke. 

"Sidious never loved ore cared about maul as a young child... and we found out he was also seriously abused...i thought maybe... maybe satine and i could help him... change him..." i said, smiling as satine nodded in reply. "and for the past couple of weeks it looked like he was really changing… " I said, remembering how maul had lied in my arms the past couple of weeks, played with us… like anyone else… 

"well, it seems like you failed kenobi... he is still a sith..." mace commanded with a stern look. 

"No, i don't think i failed... i think maul understands we loved and cared about him... he just still has to realize this..." i said with a pondering look on my face as i plucked a little at my beard while thinking. 

"Yet, he went away... " mace remarked. 

"Because he doesn't realizes how match the life he build up here affected him... when he does... i'm sure he will return..." i said, looking up as i heard the clanging of metal, after which savage appeared in the doorway. 

"We have located the shadow collective terrorists, their on ord mantale... but..." savage said as he looked from satine to obi wan with a sad look in his eyes. "According to our intail... maul is there as well..." 

"Yeah... well... we have to try and apprenth the criminails... maybe we can try and let maul go off unscrapt do…" I said, smiling at savage while I said this, while mace windu looked at me with a stern look, not liking this idea at all… 

"I hope so, I wouldn't get any sleep if I were to be blamed for the death for yet another family member" savage said seriously, before he went to assamble his man. 

"we know dear, and we aren't going to ask that off you…just be carefull and make sure he isn't caught… he needs time… time to understand that were here for him…. If he just opened his eyes for the love were offering him…" satine smiled as she gently placed a hand on the zabtaks cheeck, who nodded and gave her a carefull hug before he headed off. 

"Opress.... what is he....doing here? Isn't he with maul?" Mace asked as he looked after savage with a stern look. 

"He used to... but after we took maul and him in... he so sincerly got used to us and to the life here in the palace.. Which was helped along a lot by the fact that he was allowed to become the head of the royal guards.." I smiled, remembering the smile on savage's face when satine had officially named him head of the royal guards. 

"after maul decided he wanted to leave, savage told him he didn't wanted to come along… that he didn't wanted to be a sith anymore now he had found the love and kindnes of a family…' satine smiled while she said this at the door, from were I could sense savage was looking at us now. 

"he changed a lot afterwards… opening his hearth fully for the love and kindness we offered... he is our adoptive son now... yet we both see him as our own child, which is also how we treath him..." satine said, smiling at me then at the door were i knew savage was watching after he returned from assembling his man... most likely to shy to come in and just speak with the jedi masters himself after all he did... "yet that doesn’t takes away what he had done was wrong… and I can clearly see in his eyes that he is sorry for all the harm he has caused as a sith…. " I smiled, looking at the door were savage peeked around the corner for a moment, smiling at me thankfully as he gave a curt nod to sign I was right before he hid again. 

"come on savage… I know this will be hard… but know that were here to help you…" satine smiled as she held out her hand towards the place savage was hiding, whom peeked around the corner again, eying us for a moment with a sad look in his eyes, before he walked to satine's side and hugged her, which made me smile and walk over to them to wrap my arms around him as well. 

"were here for you savage… this might be tough… but believe me when I say it is for the best…" I said as I rubbed the zabrak over his head in a effectional way, who smiled in return as he nodded. 

"I know mom and dad…. This is just… al new to me…" savage smiled, while mace windu looked at savage with a shocked look. 

"why you're calling them "mom" and "dad" If I may ask? Their not related to you…" windu asked sternly. 

"because they took me in as their own son… and for the past few weeks I have felt more like I'm their kin then mauls… who almost forced me to go back to the life of the sith… while I said no…" savage said firmly as he took one firm step towards mace windu, who instinctively took a step backwards, because he knew what savage was up to, even do he didn't looked as intimidating anymore as he used to. 

"so… your indeed seeking retemption?" master windu asked sternly. 

"yes sir…. I know it might be hard…. Even impossible to make up for all the things I have done… but a wise man once told me that scars can heal" savage said, smiling at me when he said "a wise man" which made me smile, because he was defaintly talking about me…. "and when that happens… I hope you could at least bring yourselves to give me a second chance… " savage said, looking so honest at the jedi masters, that if he was faking I would never trust anyone ever again. 

"hmmm very wise… that indeed is… very responsible… you are…. Yet trusting you… how we can?" master yoda asked with a firm look on savage, who looked deep into the eyes of the jedi master. 

"tell me what I can do to prove my change of hearth…and I'll do it…" savage said calmly as he kept looking deep into yoda's eyes, who looked back without blinking. 

"hmmmmm really taking responsibility for your actions…. You are… proving yourself… you don't have to…. Seeing the good inside you… I have…"master yoda said as he nodded to master windu. "changed… he has…. A chance… we have to give him…" the grand master said, which made savage smile and bow in respect… which was the first time I had seen him bow to anyone appart from satine…. 

"Thank you sir… I won't let you down…" savage replied with a small smile, before he went over to us and hugged us.

"it's okay now…it's all over…" I smiled as I hugged savage close, who gently held us close as we both held him. 

"I can't believe it… I'm free,,., I'm finally really free…." the zabrak whimpered as he had tears in his eyes, something I understood very well now… he had been a slave for his entire life… and to be finally freed of those chains was a huge relieve for him, yet it must also be sad for him that it came to late for their younger brother feral… 

"yes I know it is a bit hard to believe…but you are now dear…" satine smiled, tears in her eyes as well as we hugged. 

"wait… already over… it is? " master yoda asked with a puzzled look on his face, scratching his chin with his alien like fingers as he looked from satine and me to savage. 

"yes, I already resigned from the sith order when I chose to stay behind… maul was furious…. But I did what I thought was best…" savage said, smiling as he looked down. "you should have seen mauls face do… he was both very shocked and very angry…. I don't think I have ever seen him this mad…" savage smiled, which made me rub him over his head teasingly. 

"wait, you resigned? And your still alive?" Mace asked, looking at savage with a shocked look.

"yeah, and I know that's a wonder on it's own…. Yet I think maul deep down knows… that what I did was right…. And I really think he might come back someday… when his hearth is ready…" savage said, smiling as he looked up at the sky were he knew… somewhere…. His brother was. 

"yes… but let's focus on capturing him and dooku for now… maybe he will change his mind and come back… but he needs to be captured…. So we can finally end this war…" mace said sternly, which made me nod in reply before we all headed to ord mantale with everyone. 

Savage's POV

After i finally patched things up with the jedi we all headed to ord mantale we're a group of jedi and clone troopers was already busy with the investigation. 

"What have we found so far guys?" I asked one of my man after a while. 

"Nothing sir, just fresh tracks that point out there has been a battle here... we know on one side the army of general grievous was fighting... but the other side's identity stays... elusive..." one of my man told me. 

"Hmmmm its like they erased all their tracks on the way out" i said as i looked down down, frowing when i saw a piece of something red at my feet. 

"A helmet... and its mandalorian... that must be from someone of death watch... then maul and his man have indeed been here..." i thought as i took up the helmet and inspected it closer, seeing it was indeed a death watch helmet... most likely belonging to one of the man i had seen when maul and i visited pre visla.... right before satine and obi wan adopted us...

"I have to show dad and the others... even do it will mean they might capture maul...." i thought as i walked to the place my dad was talking to two jedi, coming to thesame conclusion as i had come to before... that whoever had fought grievous's army had collected all traces of their presence on their way out. 

"Not everything dad... " i said, making the other two jedi look up at me shocked. "I found this" i said as i handed him the death watch helmet " outside the city wall… it is a death watch helmet for sure… I saw more of them after pre-visla saved maul and me…. After you shot us out of the air" I said as I handed the helmet to my adoptive father, who looked at it with a pondering look. 

"That means our intail was correct and the bond between prime minister almec... and the underworld... Is still in tact.." mace windu said as he placed a hand on his chin with a pondering look on his face. 

"yeah, threw maul…. And I'm afraid that is only the beginning… my brother has not only the help of death weatch… but also black sun, the pykes AND the mighty hutts…" I said, which made mace look up at me with a shocked look. 

"and do you have any idea on were they might go next?" mace asked as he looked at me sternly. �  
"hmmm there are two more places he might go… one is home to dathomir to seek protection with mother… and the other is an astroid outpost in deep space…" I said as I opened the star maop and pointed out the place. 

"we know that black sun has a foothold here… could it be that the shadow collective is staging a mayor operation in that sector?" obi wan wondered, while I made a map of the outer rim sector appear. "there is a known mandalorian supply outpost in this system" I said as I pointed the place out to my adoptive father. 

"maul COULD be lurking in the shadows there…" my adoptive father said with a curt nod to me. 

"well done savage… we can't let mandalore fall into the hands of maul ore the separtists" mace windu said with a firm look on obi wan, who nodded as he said "I agree" ��"I will take savage and his man with me as well as master tiplee, we will investigate that outpost together" Obi wan said with a stern look. "let's see what comes scurrying out when we shine a light on it…" 

Normal POV 

Meanwhile with maul 

"Lord tyrannus you DISSAPOINT me…" the voice of darth sidious echo'd threw the astroid outpost maul and his crew were hiding in at the moment. 

"NOW you see their faillure… and yet you could not forsee the trap I LAID for them…" I snarled, looking at my former master as I pointed at count dooku and general grievous, who were sitting behind me, both cuffed as two mandalorian soldiers guarded them. "your scheme's are unraveling sidious, without your generals, your army will be CRUSHED as will your plan" I said with a stern look. 

"that only proves THEIR weakness not my own, what are your demands?" sidious asked with a growling voice, seemingly angered by my remark. 

"not my demands… MOTHER TALZIN'S!" I said with a stern look, smirking when I saw the shocked way sidious gasped when I said this. "YES… you remember the mother… she was your ally, but you USED her as you used ME. Before throwing us both away, as you will with these two" I told sidious with a stern look, because I knew this for a fact… sidious betrayed mother talzin and stole me from her…. Then he threw me aside when I lost to obi wan kenobi on naboo all those years ago… and now… I knew one more failure would mean the end for these two as well… 

"true, yet why do you care for it?" the voice off darth mustafaro asked me in my head 

"I don't… I warn them because I have a plan for them once they see the truth… " I thought back to mustafaro with a smirk on my face. 

"kill them. I have no use for either one of them…" sidious said calmly, which made dooku look down with a sad look, while I ignited my dark saber and put it on dooku's troath. "so be it…" I commanded with a snarl on my face. "since new apprentices are apperently SOOO EASY to come by" 

"tread lightly maul, revenge is a DANGEROUS game… one you never seem to win" sidious conmanded with a smirk on his face. "I only lost when I followed YOU old man.." I snarled as I clicked a button to break the contact, having had enough of sidious and his silly mind games… since I have endured enough of those when I was his apprentice. 

"how about a bethtime story instead maul…you always seemed to enjoy that…" darth mustafaro's voice called in my head while an image sprang in my head of obi wan and satine cuddling up around me as they were reading to me, which I shook off as my commander bo katan asked me "what do we do with these two" ��"Take that MONSTROSITY to the brig and put him under a constant watch" I said as I pointed at grievous over my shoulder. "leave count dooku and me alone, we have mutch to disgust" 

"It would be unfortunate if next time we meet count, I had to add your lightsaber to my collection" general grievous said as he looked at count dooku over his shoulder, while bo katan and my first in command kast let him out of the room. 

"we all have our parts to play general" the count replied with a grin on his face. "I look forward to our next encounter… 

With obi wan 

"I sense your turmoil obi-wan" master tiplee said as she walked to the retired jedi master on the bridge of their ship. 

"yeah, at one hand I am happy to go and end this war… but at the other hand… I hope maul won't get injured… savage wouldn't forgive himself if he were to kill maul after what happened to their other brother… and I don't want to live with the guilt of taking his only remaining brother away either…" Obi wan said as he looked out of the window with a stern look on his face. 

"how did the boy die?" master tiplee asked as she looked at obi wan with a worried look on her face. 

"assajj ventress chose him as her mate…. She and the other nightsisters put a spell on him and forced savage to choke the life out of him…. He still doesn't sleeps well…" obi wan commanded as he looked out of the window with a stern look. 

'that must have been horrible for him… yet you can't let those emotions interfiere with the fact that maul is dangerous and he HAS to be stopped…" master tiplee said with a stern look at her former collega. 

"I know… but… seeing what he has been put throught… I don't think it is fair to kill him…" obi wan said as he looked the jedi master in the eye now. "he needs a second chance… he is match more then he appears to be.. And I can know… I got to know the real him…" 

'and your not worried this attachment is clouding your judgement…" master tiplee asked with a stern look. 

"most certainly not… I know jedi aren't supposed to form attachments…. But I am not a jedi anymore… and savage and maul are good on the inside… I have seen it… and I know I can bring it out…." Obi wan said as he looked at master tiplee with a stern look. "but he needs time and guidance… and if you lock him up now…he might never get to realize what he left behind when he went away…" obi wan said as he gave master tiplee a stern look, who in return looked skeptical. 

"don't worry master tiplee… i'll just try and talk to him… I'll make sure I won't fail you ore this mission…" Obi wan said with a stern look. 

"general kenobi, probes are launched and gunships are ready to scramble on your order" my friend commander cody said as he looked at me from the place he was sitting. "if maul is hiding in there we'll drag him out" 

"good, proceed as planned, make sure everyone in there is arrested…. But leave maul to me…" obi wan said as he turned to face the space with a sad look. 

"I have sensed the good in your hearth maul… and I'm going to fight until my last breath to get it out…. I promise…" he thought as the ship went into the space maul was… praying… it was not to late to save him… 

With maul

"I have let you here to make you a offer" maul said as he stood with his back turned to count dooku, who was still cuffed. "while grievous is a creature of limited scoop, you see more" maul said as he turned to face dooku. 

"you abandoned the jedi when you realized the SITH were gaining power, now I suggest you abandon sidious and serve ME" maul said with a stern look, balting his fist to put strenght by his words. 

"do you really believe there is ANY power in the galaxy that can stand against MY lord…" dooku calmly questions with his face down. "ten thousant jedi knights will try and all will fail…. What hope will YOUR army have… what hope… will YOU have…" he questioned as he looked at me calmly, his eyes burning with a fire maul knew all too well, since it had been the fire HE had once carried in his own eyes when he defended his master. 

"the old fool will fall into thesame trap I fell in once… unless he joins me… not that I would care if he did… he means NOTHING to me.." maul thought as he took a step closer to dooku and balted his fist. 

"mother talzin has shown me the REAL power… I have seen the truth… sidious is weaker then we realize… he FEARS mother talzin… and that… with our COMBINED strenght will be his UNDOING" maul said with a fierce look on dooku, who still stood before him with a unmoved look on his face. 

"OUR combined strenght?" count dooku asked as he looked up at maul with a stern look. "when mother talzin and I last met she tried to destroy me… " 

"things have changed…" maul said as he closed his eyes, soon after which his birthmother appeared… 

"count dooku, forgive our previous disagreements, you were only following your masters will…." the dathomirian witch said as he smiled a bit. "but sidious is decieving you as he once decieved me…" 

"then you know to betray the dark lord is folly" count dooku replied with a stern look. 

"no count, to betray once self is the ultimate defeat, sidious seduces you with promises of power, but he already seeks to replace you…" mother talzin said as he floated closer to the count, so he could see she was being honest with him. "long ago sidious came to me on dathomir, we exchanched secret wisdom, mingled dark side abillities with nightsister magics…" talzin said, looking down sadly as she told this. "he promised me to make me his right hand, but instead he STOLE what was most dear to me… my own flesh and blood… MY SON" talzin said, pointing at maul as she said this, making maul look at her shocked, since he hadn't known this yet… sidious had stolen him from his mother? She should have been the sith apprentice not him… 

"maul…. Your son?" dooku asked with a shocked look, even do this was fake, since he had already know that the two were blood related. 

"yes count, when sidious realized mauls potential he TOOK him from me and trained him as a sith" mother talzin said, looking back at maul with a sad look as she said this. "When he was no longer usefull, maul was left to DIE" talzin said firmly, a tear floated down her cheeck as she recalled the moment she had realized sidious had taken away her son, which made maul look at her with a shocked face, seeing his mother show her emotions like that, something that wasn't sith at all… 

"no it's not sith maul…. It is HUMAN to show your emotions… be happy and carefree… like how savage was…. Right before you left him…" the voice of mustafaro said as images of savage crying in obi wan and satine's lap crossed the zabraks mind. 

"more like: PITYFULL….to act like that…" maul thought back at mustafaro, while his mother told count dooku sidious was a total ass and was sure to betray him, while we would honor an alliance…

"not really maul…. Showing emotions is something every human being should do… sidious was a fool to take that away from you…. Yet it is not too late to reclaim those emotions maul… it is never to late…" mustafaro's voice called in mauls head as more images shot threw his head. 

"don't you have anything better to do then bother someone who is bussy…" maul thought at mustafaro in an annoyed way. 

"no, and I don't see talking sense into you like bothering…. It's meant to help you realize your making a big mistake by refusing love and kindness…believe me… I can know…" mustafaro replied calmly. "but I'll take my leave now… seems everthing I tell you is bullshit…don't bother calling on me… your fine as it seems" mustafaro's voice called in mauls head, after which maul heard a "click" sound, after which a total silence followed… meaning mustafaro was gone… 

With obi wan

"a military base hidden among the asteroids? Are you certain?" obi wan asked as he, master tiplee, commander cody and savage ran towards the landing platform to board their ships. 

"no doubt about it. we finally have that red faced monster in our cross hairs" commander cody replied, which made savage look at the clone commander with a stern look, not liking how his brother was just being called.

"no offense, but he is judging on all he has done…" cody said when he saw the look on the yellow zabraks face. 

"offence taken…" savage said, stopping before the clone commander and giving him a offended look. 

"maul is not all he appears to be cody… savage was thesame way once and he changed… but i'll tell more about that later… for now we must move fast so we still have the element of suprise in our favor…. " obi wan said as he looked from cody to savage with a stern look. 

"good idea sir… and sorry for that remark savage,… I didn't meant it like that…" cody said, taking off his helmet for a moment so the yellow zabrak could see he was being honest. 

"I forgive you, but make sure you won't make such remarks again…" savage said as he took a step towards cody. "for that will be your last one… understood?" savage growled dangerously with his face only a few inches away from cody's face, who looked back at him with a stern look. 

"understood sir…" cody said calmly, do on the inside he was shaking as a leave, knowing what the zabrak was capable off all to well… 

"good, let's go and see if my brother is there…" savage said, walking to his ship with a stern look. Behind his back cody looked at obi wan with a stern look, which made obi wan smile and shrug at him, thinking cody had been lucky that savage hadn't lost his temper with him, since even do the young zabrak male had lived in a family for a while now and was adjusted to the rules… he was still a little short tempered when it came to remarks about his looks, and if someone seriously crossed the line accidents still happened, which was something they were still working on. 

"savage is right, let's hustle now we still can " obi wan said, entering his ship, smiling at savage once more before the hatch closed and they took off to ambush maul, both obi wan and savage praying he had already managed to escape somehow. 

With maul

"my lord, we have incoming republic ships!" commander kast said as he entered the room maul and dooku were in. 

"block their transmission before they can scan us!" maul commanded as he turned to face kast, which made he was unable to see dooku using the force for one moment, which made a button on the control pannel was turned, which happened to be the button to open the cell his ally general grievous was in. 

"i'm afraid it's too late for that, they already know that were here" kast replied with a stern voice. 

"what do we do now lord maul" bo katan asked as she entered the room as well. 

"prepare all troops to defend the base, and make sure grievous stays in lockup…" maul commanded, as below them a lock bleeped after which the door of the cel of general grievous slide open, making two mandalorian guards look up shocked as the general came out. 

"perhaps your not so useless after all count" the droid general said as he force pushed the two mandelorian out of his way, then ran to the command center were he knew maul was. 

 

With obi wan

"mauls strongehold is in sight general" codies voice called over the radio to obi wan and master tiplee who were standing ready to invade the base as soon as the ship landed. 

"bring us in as close as you can without drawing their attention…" obi wan called back. 

"copy that, wait until you see this place… it is not just hidden AMONG the astroids…. It's build right into the SIDE of one' cody called back. 

"it looks amazing indeed… do I wonder how they managed this…" savage's voice called next, since he was flying close to cody and could see thesame thing as the comnander. 

"no time to think about that! The're launching gauntlet fighters!" cody called, moving away to dodge the crossfire. 

"i'm afraid maul knows were here!" savage commanded as he shot at some of the fighters. 

"you think!" cody commanded with a teasing tone in his voice. "that brother of yours sure knows what a warm welcome means that's for sure…" 

"punch throught those ships and get us in that hangar!" obi wan said to cody. 

"one entrace way coming up!" savage joked as he shot some ships out of his way. 

"hold on!" cody called as he did thesame, managing to crash land into the hangar, soon followed by savage. 

"well, I have had bumpier landings… " savage smirked as he came out of the cockpit dusting himself off as he did so. 

"are you okay?" obi wan asked with a worried look on his adoptive son. 

"Yes I'm fine dad… " savage commanded with a smile on his face. 

"good, I can sense mauls presence here… he can't be to far away" obi wan said as he dusted himself off as well. 

"I sense him as well… which means he will be able to sense us as well… let's go now we still can" savage said as he turned to his man, nodding as they all started to run. 

"let's lock this place down until our reinforcements arrive!" obi wan called to master tiplee as they did thesame, following savage to the door of the hangar that let further into the base. 

"with pleasure master kenobi…" master tiplee smiled as both jedi ignited their lightsabers to confront the droids that were already heading their way… 

With general grievous 

General grievous was fighting off the mandalorian warriors that had previously been guarding him, but the droid general was far stronger and managed to kill all mandalorians he came across. 

"those off you who can still stand… return to your master" grievous said as he took out two more mandalorians. "and tell him to send more men" the general said as he crushed the head of one of the mandalorians, blood spatting everywhere as he did so, when he had taken out all the mandalorian warriors he went to a hatch and pulled it open. 

"ah how convinient" the droid general smirked as he saw the hatch led to an escape pot. Swinging in it as handy as he was and taking off to go inform darth sidious things were going according to plan…. And that soon both talzin and maul were within his grasp… 

With maul

"we've been boarded lord maul, two jedi have been spotted in hangar three" bo said as she looked at maul with a smirk on her face. "and your big brother is with the jedi… as well as a whole bunch of his mandalorian warriors…" the redhead smirked. "what are you going to do now?" ��"you hear her count, what's it going to be?" maul smirked at count dooku as he held out his weapon to the fellow sith. "allies ore death?" 

"let us go kill some jedi… TOGETHER" dooku said after a long silence… which made that maul smirked and ignited dooku's crimson lightsaber and cut off the chains binding him. 

"wise decision" maul smirked, handing count dooku his weapon, before they left to confront his brother and the two jedi…. 

General POV 

"keep pressing foreward, we have to reach that command center!" obi wan called as he and savage were standing back to back fending off droids, while master tiplee stood a few feet away slashing threw more droids with commander cody backing her. 

"i'm slashing as hard as I can…. There is just…. So match of them,…" savage commanded as he looked back at his adoptive father with a small grin "droids these days are harder to get past" 

"tell me about it… but we have to reach that command center… ore we won't be able to stop maul…" obi wan said as he looked back at savage with a stern look. 

"ore better yet, let us come to you…" a voice called as a door shooshed open, after which count dooku and maul appeared in the doorway. 

"so it IS true… you ARE working together…" Obi wan gasped when he saw the two sith standing in the doorway. 

"ofcourse, only our shared hatred of YOU could be strong enough to unite us…" maul commanded, after which he fell a pang in his chest… since that wasn't the full truth… after the time he had spend with him he wasn't sure how he fell about obi wan…. And strangely enough… as maul thought this… no command of mustafaro followed. 

"seems he finally took the hint and left me alone" maul thought as he leaped towards obi wan now with his lightsaber ignited, but before he could hit the jedi master, savage had come in between and defended him with his own lightsaber. 

"savage, what are you doing!" maul growled when he saw his brother come to the aid of the jedi master that had adopted him, a move he hadn't expected from him. 

"you will not harm him!" savage said with a stern voice, pushing maul backwards into the hangar. 

"more gunships!" cody called all of a sudden, pointing to the space outside the base, were more gunships had appeared, out of which master windu and his reinforcements appeared. 

"stand down in the name of the republic, this has gone far enough dooku" the jedi master spat as he and some other jedi masters came out of the ship with their lightsabers ignited, ready to fight.   
�"agreed, I can promise you that your deaths WON'T be remembered" count dooku smirked as he got ready to battle as well, while maul smirked when he saw mace windu. 

"finally a fair fight" the zabrak commanded as he ignited the dark saber and went up to windu, knowing the level of power the jedi master possesed… equal to his own level of power. Which would mean a fight against him would at last be an interesting one, while maul faced off against windu, obi wan and master tiplee had to defend against dooku's force lightning, while savage had managed to get a hold on a blaster and tried to shoot away as many droids as he could. 

"there! Prepare your rockets" a few mandalorians called as they entered the fight, spotting maul facing off against windu soon enough. 

"come here little jedi"dooku grinned in the meantime as he force pulled master tiplee towards him when obi wan was with his back turned on the jedi master to help savage against a destroyer. "I have something to SHOW YOU!" he commanded, thrusting his lightsaber threw the lower stomach of the jedi master, which instandly killed her. ��"MASTER TIPLEE!" obi wan called as he looked up from his work with tears in his eyes, realizing he had failed to keep his promise to keep her safe… she was gone… obi wan was so disreacted by this that he didn't saw a destroyer coming up behind him, aiming for his neck, yet savage did. 

"dad watch out!" the zabrak cried as he got in between and caught the blast with his lightsaber, yet a part of it hit his arm, making savage groan in pain as he clutched to it. 

"thanks savage… are you okay?" obi wan asked when he saw his adoptive son was holding his arm with a pained look on his face. 

"nothing big… just…. Just got hit…" savage said with a light smile on his face. 

"aim for the twi'lek" the two mandalorian soldiers said as bo flew up and towards maul as fast as she could as the two other mandalorians fired a rocket at the twi'lek. 

"LORD MAUL! INCOMING!" the mandalorians screamed, which gave maul just enough time to grab bo's hand and let her fly him out of range and back to the other two mandalorians who were already waiting for him, as savage, obi wan and the other jedi fell on the ground wounded. 

"this way lord…. Your fighter is ready to go" kast said as he let maul and count dooku to mauls fighter which was all ready to go., 

"their heading for the gauntlets! Don't let them escape!"obi screamed after them, while holding savage up under his arm and holding the death jedi master close with the other. 

"don't worry kenobi, I will see you and my traitorous brother again soon enough!" maul called as his eyes met with those of savage for one moment, which made a pang go throught the sith lords hearth once more, yet still no sign of mustafaro to lecture him for some reason… not that he was missing it… it was just striking maul as odd after all this time that mustafaro wasn't telling him this feelings meant love and that savage had made the right choice blabla bla 

"normally he takes every oppertunity to lecture me… oo well… nice to have peace of mind again at last…" maul thought as he boarded his ship with count dooku, after which kast got behind the wheel. 

"get us out of here…" maul commanded as he got next to him together with count dooku. 

"as you wish sir" kast said, after which he quickly made the ship jump into hyperspace… 

With obi wan

"what just happened?" mace windu asked as he slowly regained his conciousness after being blasted by the death watch soldiers.

"you were blasted by a rocket sir… are you okay?" savage asked as he was being tended to by obi wan. 

"I'm fine… yet your brother escaped once more…" mace commanded as he rubbed himself over his head. 

"i'm sure we'll find him… i'll have my man track him as soon as dad let me get up…" savage joked as a he looked at obi wan, who was bandaging his arm. 

"yeah you do that…. Wait…did you just call him DAD?" mace asked as he looked at savage with a shocked look. 

"yeah, that's what he is to me after the adoption…is it THAT strange?" savage asked, yet before he could answer a clone trooper walked to master windu with a holo transmitter in his hand. 

"general, the chancellor would like a word" he said as he gave the holo transmittor to master windu, who took it over and accepted the call, informing the chancellor of what had just happened. 

"it pains me to hear of this tragedy" palpatine commanded after master windu was done explaining the situation to the chancellor. 

With palpatine/darth sidious

"it appears that count dooku and darth maul ARE allies now, which could solve a long standing mystery" mace said with a stern look. "which is that dooku is the sith master we have been seeking all along and maul is the apprentice" ��"Facinating, still there is no explanation for the battle on ord mantale? How can they be enemies one moment and allies the next?" palpatine questioned with his back turned to master windu, to hide the smirk on his face. 

"a deception perhaps?" master windu suggested. 

"a PUZZLE to be sure! Well, you've done all you can. It is unfortunate that this opptertunity slipper throught your fingers" palpatine commanded, before ending the communication. "I fear in the end it could prove DISASTRIOUS for the republic" he said as he looked at his reflection in the window… a smirk creeping on his face as he said this….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that I end the chapter! I hope you all enjoyed it! 
> 
> please review!


	7. chapter 7: the last sons of dathomir part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which a tragic lose finally opens mauls eyes to his true hearth

Mauls POV 

"Black sun and the pykes joined your collective on the promise of greather profits MAUL, but this is becoming your own personal crussade" zitton moy said over the radio transmittor soon after we had taken off from the astroid outpost. "one that already cost us zanbar, ord mantale and the astroid outpost

"perhaps your plan isn't as sure as you say" fife added. 

"you'll be paid! If that's all you want! In the meantime return to your respective sectors and prepare for our next phase…" I commanded as I looked at them firmly, seriously annoyed by the fact that they were doubting my plan. "Once sidious is death this galaxy is OURS for the taking!" 

"Keep them in line"" i told kast, who saluted as she said "yes my lord" before the transmission ended. 

"Youre learning that seizing control... is match easier then MAINTAINING it" dooku commanded behind me. 

"What would you know of control count?" I asked, not getting what the count meant with that... since sidious was in control of his every move.... unless... 

"Our allaince has been sidious's will all along, he instructed you to play this game… but you have been outmatched" I smirked as bo katan and kast took him each by an arm and pointed a gun on the side of his head, to make sure he wouldn't try anything funny, cuffing his hands behind his back before leading him off. 

"I look foreward to watching all of this come crashing down around you" dooku said as kast and bo let the sith away, which made me close my eyes and take a deep breath to calm myself, preventing I would slash that arrogant jedi betrayer in half… since he was needed for the next phase of our plan. 

"afer that…. And if there is still something left for me… I can still kill him off by slashing off his arms and legs first then slowly cut threw his neck so he would feel the life drain from his body…. That would sure be nice…" I thought with a smirk on my face, enjoying the idea of seeing him armless and legless beg for his life at my feet, only for me to ignore it and slowly cut threw his neck , as I was fantasieën about this the ship landed on dathomir surface, were we unloaded the prisoner and walked out of the ship, were brother viscus was already waiting for us. 

"brother viscus, I bring you the spoils of war" I smirked as I walked to the older zabrak. "have the preparations been made?" 

"we are ready to proceed" brother viscus said with a nod to me, before he turned to count dooku. "you'll find this to be a quite DIFFRENT experience then ord mantale count" he snapped at the older man with a smirk on his face, looking foreward to what was to come just as match as I was… 

"soon mother will be back and I will have my revenge at sidious for leaving me to die all these years ago… and then…. Then…" I thought as I closed my eyes at the thoughts of soon being able to greet mother in person for the first time since I was a small boy… 

"savage would be so happy to see her as well… yet I'm sure he won't come around to see her… he is to bussy being the idial son for that jedi and dutches…"I thought as I looked at the back of the count as we walked to the place the ritual would take place, after which mother would be back… and after that…. Sidious would be but a memory… 

Normal POV 

Meanwhile in orbit

"it is just as you predicted my lord, we've tracked count dooku's signal to dathormirs surface! What is your command?" general grievous askedas he turned to sith lord darth sidious, who was sitting in a chair behind him. 

"jam their communications and cloak the ship from vieuw" sidious replied with a smirk on his face. "they won't know we've arrived until it's match to late" sidious said with a smirk on his face, while general grievous did as he was being told, cloaking the ship they were in from vieuw and jamming the communication so no one knew who they were ore that they were arriving until it would be too late…. 

Maul's POV 

"Come dooku, we're at the hearth of mother talzins power and your about to answer for the crimes of your master against the nightsisters" brother viscus said a moment later as we arrived at the place of the ritual, while two nightbrothers shove him into a cirlcle, then blocked his way out of it. 

"Lord maul, now it is your turn, place your hand at the stone and say the chant that will bring mother back..." brother viscus said with a respectfull bow as he pointed to the stone that had a painting of my birthmother on it.

"Greath mother hear ouf prayer, diviner of truth, deliverer of justice, REVEAL YOURSELF" I chanted, using the words mother had taught me for this very moment. As i said the last words a green smoke eminated from the stone and started to circle around dooku and me. 

"My son is right count, it's time to elliminate everything that gives sidious power! Beginning with YOU" my mothers voice said, and when she said "you" the smoke went into dooku's body, making the count scream in agony as mother started to drain his life force away.

"You feel that count? Mother draws your very LIFE FORCE from your withered bones" i asked with a smirk on my face, enjoying this mans missery. "Draining you will give her all she needs to fully take form" 

"It won't be long now, he won't survive this" brother viscus said as he looked at the green smoke that was mother drain away the sith lords life energy. 

"Good" i replied without taking my eyes off the proces. 

"Mother will be whole soon, but the proces could weaken her, i'll make sure her chambers are ready" brother viscus said, before he and the nightbrothers headed off, leaving me alone with dooku. 

"As a sith, you understand deception, witches don't die so easily" i said with a smirk on my face as i bended myself over dooku now, making sure he would hear every word i said, just so i could rub in my victory. "Mother sacrificed much of her own form to resurect me, this is why you have been unable to detect her!" I smirked. 

"For a COMPLETE and PERMANT return to the psysical realm requirs greath sacrafice" i continued, as mother lifted dooku"s lifeless body from the ground and made him float in mid air while green smoke emminated from all holes in his head. "Throught your blood a new power will rise from the roots of dathomir!" I proudly smirked, do that smirk faded when a explosion was heard behind me, after which general grievous appeared. 

"Blood is about to spill alright. YOURS" the droid general said, while he got his lightsabers from his cloak and got ready to fight. 

"" you're too late general, our plans are in motion and can't be stopped!" I said while I ignited my dark saber and got into fighting stance as well. 

"no matter how many times you fail, you never learn this lesson maul" a voice suddenly called out, which made my head snap up, since it was a voice I knew all to well… a voice that still echood threw my worse nightmares. "there is only ONE plan ONE greath design which shall govern the universe" my former master darth sidious said as he stepped out from behind grievous, "MINE!" the older man said as he looked up with a smirk on his face…. Which mostly meant punishment and trouble… but this time I knew HE would be the one in trouble and not me… since he had no idea what mother had planned for him once she had returned to the visical world… 

Normal POV

In orbit

"i'm telling you… a full armada of droid vessels just appeared out of nowhere and is lying siege to our defences" zitan moy told bo katan and first commander kast over the radio transmittor. 

"i'ts happening here too… they were lying in wait for us! How could they know!" fifes asked with a shocked voice. 

"I don't know… but this is surely bad news" bo said as she nodded to kast, who nodded back as a sign of understanding. 

"were is maul? We should be dealing directly with him" zitan moy asked with a harsh voice, clearly mad about the whole ordeal going on at the moment. 

"follow your orders! Hunker down and FIGHT!" kast said with a firm voice. "lord mauls location isn't your concern" 

"indeed, if anything needs to go to him WE will contact him" bo put in with a firm look. 

"not our concern! If his fleet isn't deployed to defend us IMMIDIATLY our partnership is FINISHED" zittan moy said harshly 

"now hold on" fifes said as he looked at the hologram of his collega criminail "black sun has more then enough resources to protect itself WERE the one's who need support" fifes said with a firm voice. 

"we'll take this up with lord maul, meanwhile try and fight them off with the resources you have" bo said, before she walked out… heading to see if she could contact lord maul and ask him to deploy the resources needed to help black sun anc the pykes so they would stay in line… since they still needed to them take down kenobi and her sister…. 

With maul

"at last, the greath deciever comes to rescue his pawn" maul smirked, standing before the body of count dooku with his dark saber drawn, ready to strike his master down if needed. 

"I have come to end this farce once and for all…" the dark lord of the sith said with a cold voice. 

"you come to your doom old man, mother talzin lives and your apprentice is under her full control…" Maul smirked in reply, turning to the body of dooku, which suddenly got up with glowing green eyes before it ignited dooku's crimson blade. 

"now sidious! You will pay for your betrayel" dooku said with the voice of mother talzin, before she made the body of dooku clash blades with sidious, while maul did thesame by general grievous. Soon both were fighting and dodging each other, yet were maul was very skilled with the lightsaber and knew exacly what he was doing. Mother talzin didn't, and even do she had control over dooku's body who was a very skilled fighter with the lightsaber she couldn't win against sidious, since she had no control over his memories and thus over his fighting skills. 

"you posses dooku's body, but you posses none of his skills" sidious said with a smirk on his face when talzin was seemingly at the losing hand against him. "release my apprentice you haggard witch!" sidious snarled, before he unleased a full blow of force lightning against the body of his apprentice, which made both dooku and talzin scream in agony. 

"mother no!" maul thought, as he and grievous both looked up from their fight to witness dooku getting electrocuted by sidious. 

"EEEE ENOUGH!' talzin's voice exclaimed after a moment, before smoke came frrom dooku's body, which took form above him, soon after which talzin appeared… her blue eyes burning with hatred as she fully took form. 

"I am whole! I am complete!" talzin said as she stepped onto the ground, looking at sidious with a hatefull look. 

"You are about to die" sidious replied with a smirk on his face, since this was exacly what he had been hoping for… now talzin was among the living again… he could finally kill her, then maul…. Then no one would stand in the ways of his plans to become the emporer of the first galactic empire…. 

In orbit

"lord maul isn't responding…. He is seemingly bussy…" bo katan said after a moment as she entered the main control room again with a holo transmitter in her hand. 

"forget this! We've lost to many ships! Tell maul he's on his own" fifes said. 

"this whole endeavoir has become a MASSIVE liabillity. Black sun is finished here as well" zittan moy said with a firm voice. 

"this is not what we agreed" kast replied with a stern look on both leaders. 

"YOU'RE the warrior, WER'E mercenaries… and there's no more profit in this fight" fifes said, which was true… they had only agreed to join the shadow collective on the promise they would get greath rewards once maul had taken down sidious and took over the galaxy…. Now that future was more uncertain then ever… it was logic they were giving up on the collective… and both kast and bo realized that… but they had to try and keep them in line… maul wouldn't be pleased if they wouldn't at least try. 

"if you abandon your posts we will hunt you down and KILL you ourselves!" kast said, after sharing a nod with bo katan, who was standing behind her… who nodded as a sign kast was right. 

"assuming you survive the day" zitton moy said with a firm look on his face. "were out" fifes said, before both of them broke the connection, making kast growl in frustration as she looked to the side with a angry look. 

"you did what you could kast… there was nothing you could do anymore…" bo said as she placed a hand on the shoulder off her commander in a reassuring way. 

"I know bo… I just wish I could have done more to make them do their job and…." she started, but stopped as another mandalorian warrior came in with a urgent message. 

"sir, we're picking up something BIG heading this way, a serpatist invasion fleet is approaching" the man said, pointing to the enormous fleet heading their way. 

"prepare to land on dathomir… we have to get lord maul and flee now were all still in one peace… " kast said as she turned to her man. "dathomir is lost as it seems…" ��maul's POV 

I was battling grievous for a while now, and after a long time I managed to finally get the upper hand, after which I used a firm force push to knock him threw the gap he had previously blown in the wall which would make him drop down at least 5 feet.

"good riddance, mechanical trash" I said with a smirk on my face as I looked down to the place grievous had dissapeared in for a moment, before I turned back to the fight between my mother and my former master. 

"how long I have waited for this" My mother said with a smirk on her face, as she and sidious each made their own form off force lightning clash. 

"Yes, your rush to oblivion has nearly reached it's end…" sidious remarked as he put even more power on his force lightning, which made my mother struggle to stay up, yet it still seemed their power was equal. That was until a groaning count dooku got up and started to use HIS force lightning on my mother as well, which made her groan loadly as she was forced to go in retreat by forming a shield as I got behind her, unable to do anything since I had no idea how to produce force lightning…

"yet there has to be SOMETHING i can do… mother isn't strong enough to fend them off both…" I thought as I closed my eyes and thought, before I opened them and quickly put my hand on my mothers shoulder. 

"mother, take my strenght" I said, transferring all the power I could miss towards my mother, hoping she would be able to fend both man off now, but as dooku joined in with force lightning things only seemed to get worse for her… and thus for me. 

"fight mother, fight!" I encouraged talzin, while I saw grievous had managed to climb back up from the corner of my eye, and I heard the sounds of a ship landing behind me. 

"LORD MAUL! DATHOMIR IS LOST! WE MUST RETREAT!" bo and kast called from behind me, but I didn't wanted to leave yet… not without mother… I wasn't leaving her behind… not like this… she could die if I left her now…

"go my son" talzin said as she looked back at me, having read my thoughts for sure she was most likely more worried about my well being then her own… yet despite that... she must have seen i wasn't going to abandon her...

"but why…. Why would she risk dying again if we could escape together…" I thought as I let out a growl as I shook my head boldly. 

"we can escape together… " I said boldly, not willing to lose her as well… 

"well, technical speaking I didn't lost savage… he isn't DEATH… but he betrayed me and now…. Because he isn't here… mother is gonna die…" I thought bitterly as I looked at talzin… my birthmother with a stern look, detirmined to only flee if she came with me… 

"not this time my son… if I lower my defenses you will DIE" talzin said as she looked at me with a stern look, gritting her teeth as she was still trying to fend off The force lightning of the two sith lords. 

"remember your promise and RUN" talzin said, as she used her own form of an force push to push me backwards to the ship, were kast and bo katan catched me. 

"MOTHER!' i called as I landed on the bridge leading to the ship, were bo and kast immidiatly grabbed hold of me, preventing me from hurrying back to try and save her as well. 

"I have to get back! I can't let her die! Not her!" I thought as I struggled to get the two mandalorians to let go of me, which made bo katan look at me with a worried look, probably pitying me for the situation I was in… normally i would have made a remark about that kind of things... but right now i was to focused on saving my mother to do so... not willing to lose a moment on a command like that. 

"we have to run lord maul, if you die everything is lost" kast said as she and bo tried to pull me onto the ship, while I still tried to get to talzins side and help her… 

"let go of me! I have to help her!" I snarled, trying to make it sound more like a command then a plea, not wanting to let them hear I was desperate to save her… to at least keep one family member by my side… but as I kept struggling to get to my mothers side. But as i did i see to my greath horror how grievous walked threw both talzin and sidious force lightning armed with a lightsaber and ready to strike… �  
"no…. No please…." I thought, unable to turn my head away as grievous ignited two lightsabers while my mothers defence fully broke, making she was fully exposed to attacks now, and by the looks of it she hadn't had any power left to dodge ore run. �  
"It is time…" grievous smirked as he stood still before my mother and looked down at her with a grin on his face, enjoying this moment… ��"MOTHER!! No!" I exclaimed in horror, reaching out a hand towards my mother in the hope that something…. Anything… could make grievous stop now and save mothers life, but there was nothing I could do but watch in horror as grievous stabbed two lightsabers threw my mothers chest, making green smoke emerge from her new body as it turned to dust… 

"NO! No…." I screamed weakly as I had to fight to keep my tears in…. Gone… she was gone…. Mother was gone… all of this had been for nothing… we wouldn't get revenge on sidious together… I had to run once more… without mother… without savage… I was all alone… 

"it's okay lord maul, we're going to get you out of here" kast said as she and bo dragged me on board now and brought me to my room. I let them… unable to resists them now… my head was to full of what had just occured… I fell they brought me into my room and put me onto the floor in a corner of the room after which bo katan kneeled down before me. 

"It's okay lord maul….your safe now…" her voice called out of the distance… while I was crying on the inside… gone… she was gone… I would never see her smile at me again… grievous had murdered her before i could even say goodbye... 

"let's give him some space… he'll re-join us once he's ready…" kast said as she walked around the room and picked some things up, putting them away in her pocked before she left the room, leaving me alone with bo katan, who didn't seemed to be about to leave. 

"I know were not the best of friends….and we might never be,.. But…know that i understand your grieving right now… and that I'm here… if you need me,.." the orange haired girl said as she placed a hand on my arm and looked at me with a soft smile. At one hand I wanted to make a remark back now… that she should keep her pity to herself… and that I didn't needed anyone… but somehow I was unable to say it… unable to make a remark like that now… mothers death had taken that away with her. 

"you know…" Bo asked as she sat dow with me now and got into thesame position as I was in right now. "you never quite told… why did you run from my sisters custody? I mean… her believes are a bit… off to me…. But she is very nice and kind and caring… and didn't ever stroke me as the evil stepmother type..." the orange haired girl asked as she looked at me with a small grin. "Also... from what i heard she changed a lot after she and kenobi became a couple and they officially adopted your brother..." she continued, looking at me sadly as she did so. 

"their indeed very nice and all that…" I said firmly as I looked up at her. "but that life is to quite and peacefull for my liking… " i replied, before turning my head to the side, hoping she would catch the hint and leave now so i could maybe let my tears flow for a moment... but she didn't got the hint ore chose to ignore it... lucky me... 

"I see... peace is a lie huh? Everyone knows the sith quote's by now..." the orange haired girl said as she looked at the roof with a pondering look on her face. "Yet i never quite understood why love is such a bad thing... since... love is really powerfull... and stays forever... even after death..." bo said with a smile on her face, which made me look up at her with a shocked look. 

"You seriously believe those jedi like nonsense? Even as a member of death watch?" I questioned, thinking it was a bit off for a death watch warrior to believe in things like that... 

"It's not a shame to hold on to your own believes within death watch... pre visla always taught me that... as long as i followed him... i could believe whatever i want..." bo replied. "And everyone should be able to do so... its our human right..." 

"Yeah sure..." i said as i looked to the side, human right my butt... that's not what i have been taught... 

"Yes... and maybe... just maybe my sister took you in to give you that humanity back..." bo continued. "I know my sister... she is a good person... and if she has seen your hurt... less murderous side... she was most likely trying to get that out..." the orange haired girl said, before she got up and took my dark saber out of the room, leaving me alone with my thoughts at long last... 

"Yet what she said... satine HAS seen my human side... the boy i used to be... maybe she WAS just trying to get him out..." i thought, looking to the side, were my eye caught the shed of paper i had thrown aside earlier... 

"I promised mother to go back if anything were to happen to her... but..." i thought as i picked up the letter and looked at it with a sad look. "How can i go back... after all i have done..." i thought, feeling a lump form in my throath... 

"Mustafaro.... are you there.... i know i said i didn't liked it when you commanded on my every move but i could use some advice now..." i thought, but no reaction came. Mustafaro was gone... i had driven him away from me... 

"Just like how i have driven savage away from me... " a voice in my head said. "He was right to stay... you should have listened to him and stayed when you had the chance... then mother had never died" the voice continued on a snappy tone, thesame tone sidiouw always used whenever he gave me a scolding... And this time… I couldn't get myself to make a remark back to that voice, since I knew it was right… I should have listened to mustafaro… I should have stayed… then mother hadn't died…. And even do i might have become a good law obeying house boy.... had it really been as awfull as sidious always made it sound? 

" yet the peacefull quite life just isn't my thing… how was kenobi expecting me to stay and become a obidient house boy… " I thought as I kept my head in my knees. "That just isn't me..." 

" oo really?" the voice in my head countered " did you really honestly give that life a chance then? Because last time I checked you shrugged it off like it was nothing" it countered, and I couldn't really say it wasn't right… I hadn't really given it a honest chance… I had immidiatly shrugged the thoughts of a calm simple life in a loving family away because I had thought it was something more for jedi…. Not for a sith like me… and I'm not a sith anymore… that's for sure now. 

"if that's true, then go back… I'm sure they'll understand… if your willing to face up for what you've done" the voice said, which made me look up with a shocked face… go back? Face up for what I have done? No way… they would never forgive me… they would most likely punish the life out of me… just like how my former master had always punished me for disobidience… 

" I wish I had never left… then they wouldn't most likely hate me now… then mother had still been here… alive…" the voice of a younger me called in my head, which made I fell tears sting in the corner of my eyes, and for the first time in my entire life… I couldn't keep my emotions in control anymore… making I burried my head in my knees and cried like a child… feeling horrible about the decision I made…. 

"Seems someone finally got some sense beaten into him" a voice in my head called, which made me snap my head up. 

"Mustafaro?" I thought, raising my head in shock... had he heard my plea and come back? No... this wasn't mustafaro... his voice was heavier... this one sounded more kind... more like... a jedi... 

"No... mustafaro is in the afterlife with farra and his child, seeming quite upset when i asked him why he wasn't with you... what happened?" The jedi like voice asked, making i closed my eyes and let a tear roll down my cheeck when i heard this... i had seriously upset him... and that wasn't how i meant it....

" well... i was trying to concentrate on a mission and he was continuesly lecturing me, which made me... pissed on him...and...." i gulped as i recalled our little argument that had made mustafaro leave. "And in my annoyance i told him i thought he was just bothering me... Something… I shouldn't have said… " I replied, admitting the last part with my head down, since I was feeling a little bit ashamed of my outburst now. 

" seems your finally learning from your mistakes maul, and if I see mustafaro I will tell him your sorry… he might come back then so you two can talk things over…" the voice replied, which made me roll my eyes at it a little annoyed, since he sounded more and more like a jedi… and I still couldn't stand jedi… 

" are you quie gon jin by any chance? Since you know a awfull lot jedi wisdoms…" I thought to the stranger. 

" why yes… do you still have a problem against jedi?" the jedi master asked with a teasing voice, which made me mentally roll my eyes at him. 

"it's still a bit hard for me to accept help from a jedi after all my former master drilled in my core for years…" I replied, while playing with the note in my hand. "but…. I guess It can't help to listen to others from time to time…"   
I admitted with a sheepish smile. 

" I see, can you tell me…. How did sidious treath you…. I understood from my former apprentice you were taken as a baby from your mother…" qui gon asked with a soft voice. 

" yes… and… well… all he ever did was train me… he never took care of me like normal parents do for their childeren…" I said, recalling all the horrible lonely years of training on mustafar, then on the orsis academy and after that all alone again on several other planets. 

" and my former apprentice…. Was he anyting like that when you were living on mandalore with him and the dutches satine?" the jedi asked.

"n….no" I admitted with my head still between my legs. That life had been the opposite off how sidious used to treath me. Kenobi and satine had cared for me like i was their own child... letting me speak out me thoughts, made me launch, gave me that strange warm feeling in my chest... a feeling i only now record-ice... love... it had been love i had felt back there. 

"then why did you leave a place that offered a life better then getting pushed around and starved…" qui gon jins voice asked, not sounding accusing at all, more curious to know what drove me to abandon a life I had never know… a life I had dreamed about so many times when I was just a child… 

 

"because I fell like it wasn't the life I wanted to live… locked in a lovy dovy family with kenobi being all nice to me… until a kid of their own would show it's face then it will be bye, bye to us…." I thought, rolling my eyes at qui gon mentally, still believing the first moment a kid of kenobi and satine themselves will show up we will be tossed aside…. That was just how life worked for as far as I have been taught…. 

" Hmmmm and how can you be so sure he will… since I know obi wan and I can tell you… not as a jedi but as a friend of his… that he isn't like that at all…" qui gon replied, while I fell a soft hand on my forehead in the distance, after which I heard bo katan in the distance yell something I couldn't quite place. 

" you seriously think I will believe your not saying that because you’re a fellow jedi who stands up for him? Typical…" I backfired. "that kid will be his own flesh ore blood…. And unless it's a boy as well… we'll be cast aside… mark my words…" I said, looking to the side as I did so. 

" No maul… not everyone is like that… there are people… not jedi… just people… who love and care about you the way you are inside… I might have been born and raised as a jedi… but I have never accepted a seat in the jedi counsil… nor did I also follow the perspective of the jedi… ask obi wan he can confirm that" qui gon said, grinning a little as he said the last part, which made me look up quite shocked, since I had always been taught that all jedi who stayed in the order had always followed up the rules perfectly… and everyone who didn't was kicked out of the order…. 

" you did…. Why?" I therefore asked a little shocked, wanting to hear more now… 

" because not everything the jedi believe in is right… I have studied both sides maul… both jedi and sith…. And if I have learned one thing in my life… and even after that…. Is that it shouldn't matter… jedi… ore sith… good ore bad…. They should be in balance inside one person… then your one with the force… then… your truly powerfull…" qui gon said, which made me look up with a shocked look…. Both at the idea that this jedi master had studied the ways of the sith and the fact that he believed the jedi and sith shouldn't fight over who's strongest…. 

" if you were THAT powerfull…. Why did I manage to gut you back on naboo? Why didn't you manage to simply beat me there and then?" I asked in disbelieve. 

" because I couldn't use my full potential in that small room, I didn't had the room to flip and kick as usual…. Which made you were able to overpower me… and the rest is acnient history" qui gon said calmly. " yet I should have seen you were just following up your masters orders… and tried to talk you out of it when I had the chance… that way your legs had been saved and my life had been saved as well… I'm sorry for that…." the jedi master said calmly, while I fell a cool hand on my forehead once more as well as two female voice in the distance bickering over something. 

"yeah, not that I had listened to you at that point…" I replied with a smirk. 

" true…" came the simple reply from qui gon jin. 

" say…. Is there a chance you will teach me that balance thing…. Not because I'm suddenly interested in becominng a jedi…. Just because you got me curious about it…" I asked with a smirk on my face. 

" maybe… let's make a deal then… you keep your word to your mother and go back… then I will consider teaching you…" the jedi master said, which made me look up shocked, since that sounded a awfull lot like he he was trying to set me up.

"Never thought a jedi would ever be able to set someone up..." i thought to qui gon with a smirk on my face as i got up, looking at the note one more time as i made up my mind... i was going to keep my word... i was going back....back to mandalore...back home...

"I might be a jedi... but i have always learned their is noting bad about striking a deal every now and then" qui gon replied, certainly smirking as he did so, even do i couldn't see this for some reason. 

"I will try and go back... but before i do so i have to ask... how come mustafaro was able to show himself to me and you don't?" I asked curiously. 

"Because you gutted me before i could finish my training i'm unable to project my spirit to others... so thanks a lot for that one..." the voice of qui gon jin said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. 

"Your welcome" i replied sarcastic as well, before i broke the connection by forcing my eyes open and looking around. I was lying on my beth all of a sudden and bo katan was sitting by my bethside, looking down at me relieved when she saw i was waking up. 

"What"s with everyone being so pafatic and thinking i'll die the second i pass out these days..." i thought, mentally rolling my eyes at bo's weak display of worry. 

"Lord maul, your awake... you have been passed out for quite some time… you had us all worried… " bo said as she took a piece of cloth from my forehead and put it in a bowl of water to make it wet again before she placed it back on my forehead, which somehow reminded me of satine doing the exact same thing… 

" yeah, I'm not going to die from a little fever… " I snapped back, forcing myself upright as I did so. 

" I know… yet you should take it easy… your running a fever…" bo said with a worried look on her face, which made me growl in a frustrated way, since even do I was learning I still didn't liked to be told " no" on the excuse that I was supposed to be ill...

"Don't you have anything better to do..." i Therefore growled at her, as a dizzy spell hit me and in a flash i saw a woman with fierce red hair and glowing yellow eyes stand in the corner of the room. 

"No... kast told me to look after you as long as your ill... so just take it easy..." bo said with a stern voice, yet i could hear the hidden worry in her voice, which made me growl in annoyance... still not liking it when people were acting all worried about me. 

"Yet it is a good thing... my mustafa had some troubles accepting this as well at first... you two are more alike then you both seem to realize..." the redhead said as she sat down next to me and placed a hand on my forehead with a loving smile on her face. 

"Who...who are you..." i asked the female as bo placed me down again and tucked me in.

"My name... is farra... i'm mustafaro's wife and bo katans past life..." the woman said, which made me gasp and look from her to katan with a shocked look. 

"I'm here because you and mustafaro have had a little... argument and... well... he seems quite upset...yet not because he is mad... " fara continued. "It seems like he most likely just hury your refusing to listen to him..." fara said, which made me look down. 

"Well, i did send qui gon jin to him just now to pass along the message i wanted to speak to him..." i admitted with a small smile, which made fara smile. 

"Which is why i'm here... because he didn't wanted to come himself at once, thinking it might be to jusr scold him again..." farra said, looking at the door, behind which i saw a shadow move. 

"Well...it's not for that at all.... i... i wanted to tell him.... " i started, taking a big gulp before continueing, since this was new for me and very hard to do. "I was wrong... i should have listened and stayed... i'm...i'm sorry" i said, flopping out the last part fast, before i could change my mind... 

"Appologies accepted..." i looked up as a fammiliar voice called this, record-icing this voice out of thousants... mustafaro... he was back...

"You....you heard me?" I stammed, feeling the still stange sensation of tears pricking in the corners of my eyes. 

"Every word... i just didn't replied to teach you a lesson... you needed to see your capable of feeling love and kindness as well... before i could return" mustafaro smiled as he came closer, holding a young boy by hand as he walked to me. "Which is why i send qui gon jin to tell you that i was upset... it was all meant to break threw that sith lord bubble you have always wore around you" mustafaro smiled as he sat down next to me, while the young boy crawled in his mothers lap. 

"When qui gon told me you got the message and were starting to realize the errors of your past i send farra, who happens to be bo katans past life out to see in how far you were willing to face up for your deeds" mustafaro smiled. "Didn't you ever wonder WHY bo went back to death watch after pre-visla was killed?" Mustafaro asked, which made me look from him to farra with a shocked look.

"You told her... so we would meet again and... and she could help you break threw my walls..." i realized, looking from mustafaro to farra with a shocked look as a thought came in my head i couldn't bear... "Wait... does that mean you KNEW mother would...die?" I asked shocked, making mustafaro look at me with a sad look, before he nodded. 

"Yes, and she knew it herself as well... she fell in her bones this wasn't going to end well, which made i had to promise her i wouldn't tell you..." mustafaro admitted with a guilty look on his face. 

"She knew.... she yet she didn't warned me and stopped when we had the chance... why... why did she do that?" I thought as tears formed in the corners of my eyes. 

"Because she thought you wouldn't crawl back anyway and.... " mustafaro gulped before he spoke on. "She told me...she knew she needed to go... in order for me to break threw that wall around you...she sacrificed herself in order to get you to understand your true emotions..." i heard mustafaro say in the distance, while i saw from up close how mother was stabbed. Realizing only now why she had made me make that promise... she knew this was going to happen... she knew and she had made me promise that so i would go back afterwards... 

"I might have crawled back if i had known her safety was at risk..." i said a little offended, the nerve of that man thinking i don't care for my own mother.... 

"Maybe... maybe not... we'll never know.... all that counts now is this: what are you going to do now? Continue on your rampage, which will eventually lead to your early funeral... ore go home... to your family..." mustafaro's voice asked as he slowly started to dissapear. "The choice is up to you maul... i'll be here if you need me... " the sith lord said, after which i woke up gasping, looking around with a shocked look i saw we had landed on concordia were it had all started and it had turned dark outside... night... perfect... 

"I now know what i need to do... and i'm going to do it... i'm going home..." i thought as i slowly got up to my feet. Immidiatly noticing the dizzyness had dissapeared now my mind was made up... as quitly as i could i snuck out of the room i was in to get to the cockpit. I was just about to unlock the door as... 

"Lovely night to sneak away isn't it?" A familliar female voice called behind me, making me jump a little... i had been so deep in thought that i hadn't sensed her coming up behind me. 

"Bo....kriffing badness you sure know how to sneak up on someone... " i said as i looked from the door to her. 

"You didn't sensed me coming up behind you? Bo asked with a raised eyebrown. 

"No... i was to bussy sneaking to sense you coming up behind me... and what i am going to is none of your buisness..." i snapped at the orange haired girl with a stern look, but katan, bold as she was didn't moved an inch. 

"I don't have to ask... i already know were your going and... i have had enough of this life as well... so i'm coming with you... whether you like it ore not" bo said firmly, taking a step towards me as she did so. 

"Fine, but i'm flying... you can just lift along..." i said firmly as i now opened the cockpit door and got in the drivers seat. 

"YOUR going to fly? You're ill... " bo remarked, but she stopped her protest as soon as i gave her my "protest on and your death" look, which worked on almost everyone, really... until now my master is the one exception. 

"You can hitch a ride... but for the rest i don't wanne hear a SOUND from you... understood?" I asked firmly as i started the engines. 

"Understood captain" bo replied with a smirk as she saluted. Sighting i now flew the ship off concordia and went into hyperspace, setting course for mandalore.. this was going to be one long trip……

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that I end the chapter! I hope you all enjoyed it! 
> 
> the first part is a take from the dark horse comic " darth maul son of dathomir" I DON'T OWN ANYTHING OF IF!!! ��for the last few scene's I think it might be clear that talzins death has comepletely broken down the wall off mauls dark side bubble, which means I'm now just going to try and write maul's new character arc as good as I can, don't get mad if it isn't as expected. 
> 
> Qui gon jin has been communicating threw the force from the netherworld before, so I thought it might be possible that qui gon would be able to communicate with maul, do I didn't think maul would be to happy to hear the voice of his old enemy. 
> 
> Bo katan is the reincarnation of farra (darth mustafaro's wife) more about this wil follow in upcoming chapters! Keep this in mind, it might be important… 
> 
> That was all for now, I hope you enjoyed it! 
> 
> Please leave a review!


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